November 2009

This factsheet reports key youth labour market information for the year to September 2009.  All data is sourced from the Household Labour Force Survey released by Statistics New Zealand.  Age data is not seasonally adjusted and so all figures are averaged over a year to reduce seasonal variation and sample error.  For the purposes of this factsheet, youth refers to those aged 15-19 years.

Summary of the youth labour market for the year to September 2009

Long description for Youth Labour Market Summary

Participation

The youth participation rate was 51.8% for the year to September 2009. It was down from 54.2% for the year to September 2008, but was up slightly from a decade ago (51.7% for the year to September 1999). While the youth participation rate was below the national annual average participation rate of 68.5%, the high rates of involvement in secondary and tertiary education in this age group mean that the participation rate on its own is not as meaningful as a measure of outcomes as it is for other age groups.

Employment

Employment growth for youth has been at 1.3% per annum on average since September 1999. This was lower than the economy-wide average of 2.2% since 1999. Over the last year annual average youth employment fell by 11.0%, while employment for all persons fell by 0.3%.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate for youth increased to 21.1% for the year to September 2009. This was higher than the 14.9% recorded for the year to September 2008 and 17.6% for the year to September 1999. The youth unemployment rate remains well above the annual average rate for all persons (5.5%).