National Executive Summary

The Annual In-Depth Regional reports (AIDR) are a set of 12 regional labour market reports with a specific focus on Youth. The twelve regional reports convey key youth related labour market information on twelve regions of New Zealand. They focus primarily on the Population Census dataset, allowing a particularly fine breakdown of youth labour market information.

The focus on youth in the 2008 reports follows the release of an economy wide focus in the 2007 version of the reports. Feedback received from stakeholders following the release of the 2007 reports most commonly suggested youth as a theme for future reports. The focus on youth also assists our agreement to provide enhanced labour market information for the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs.

Following the decision to focus on youth for the 2008 reports, the Schools Plus discussion paper was released and the OECD International ‘Jobs for Youth’ report was released. Both of these two developments further supported the decision to focus on youth.

The statistics are presented based on a Territorial Authority basis where the data is available, allowing interpretation of sub regional patterns. Given the importance of youth in current government initiatives and the variety of labour market characteristics within the different regions of New Zealand, this sub regional analysis is particularly important to inform regional stakeholders in their strategic decision making.

The reports are designed to act as a baseline for regional decision makers. By knowing current and projected characteristics of youth, they are better informed to develop the regionally based projects required to achieve economic and social development plans. Throughout the reports a set of questions are included to facilitate this process.

Results from the 2008 AIDR show that:
The analysis shows a range of performance. Urban based areas tend to have higher than average shares of the youth population and better than average labour market outcomes. While rural areas tend to have poorer results, they generally have fewer youth.
Nationally, employment growth for youth between 2001 and 2006 was faster than that for the working age population. Within this, older youth (those aged 20-24) grew faster than for younger youth (those aged 15-19).

The youth unemployment rate fell by 4.0 percentage points from 2001 to 2006, to reach 13.3% in 2006. The youth employment rate rose 2.4 percentage points to reach 57.6% in 2006.

The youth labour force participation rate fell slightly between 2001 and 2006, while the participation rate for the total population over the same period rose strongly. This is quite a positive result, suggesting that rather than participating in the labour force, more youth are participating in education and training.

The 12 Annual In Depth Regional Reports can be viewed below:

• Northland
• Auckland
• Waikato
• Bay of Plenty
• Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay
• Taranaki
• Manawatu – Wanganui
• Wellington
• Tasman/Nelson/Marlborough/West Coast
• Canterbury
• Otago
• Southland