In the year to December 2009 the working-age population in the Manawatu / Wanganui region was 184,200. The labour force participation rate was 66.4% while 122,300 people were in the labour force and 61,900 people were 'not in the labour force'. Of those people who were in the labour force, 5.8%, or 7,100 were unemployed and 115,200 were employed.
Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

Notes:

1. Participation rate: proportion of the working-age population that is in the labour force.
2. Employment rate: proportion of the working-age population that is employed.
3. Unemployment rate: proportion of the labour force that is unemployed.

POPULATION

The working-age population in the Manawatu / Wanganui region is estimated at 184,200 in the year to December 2009.

LABOUR FORCE

The participation rate in Manawatu / Wanganui stood at 66.4% during the year to December 2009 up from 65.0% the year before. In comparison, the national average participation rate was 68.3% for the year to December 2009.

The number of people in the labour force in the Manawatu / Wanganui region is estimated to be 122,300 in the year to December 2009.

Figure 1: Regional and national trends in the participation rate

annual average, %	Manawatu / Wanganui	New Zealand
Dec 00	59.7	65.3
Dec 01	61.7	65.8
Dec 02	63.7	66.6
Dec 03	63.5	66.4
Dec 04	62.7	67.0
Dec 05	65.7	67.8
Dec 06	66.8	68.3
Dec 07	65.6	68.5
Dec 08	65.0	68.5
Dec 09	66.4	68.3

Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

For a more detailed explanation of the labour force and the participation rate, go to the Department of Labour publication: workINSIGHT, issue 5, page 35, The Labour Market Explained: The Labour Force Participation Rate at www.workINSIGHT.govt.nz.

EMPLOYMENT

The employment rate (the proportion of the working-age population that is employed) in Manawatu / Wanganui stood at 62.5% during the year to December 2009 up from 62.3% the year before. In comparison, the national average employment rate was 64.1%.

Employment in the Manawatu / Wanganui region was 115,200 in the year to December 2009.

Figure 2: Regional and national trends in the employment rate

annual average, %	Manawatu / Wanganui	New Zealand
Dec 00	55.9	61.3
Dec 01	58.4	62.2
Dec 02	60.4	63.0
Dec 03	60.4	63.2
Dec 04	59.9	64.3
Dec 05	62.8	65.2
Dec 06	63.7	65.6
Dec 07	62.1	66.0
Dec 08	62.3	65.6
Dec 09	62.5	64.1

Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

For a more detailed explanation of employment, go to the Department of Labour publication: workINSIGHT, issue 4, page 32, The Labour Market Explained: Employment at www.workINSIGHT.govt.nz.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The region's unemployment rate increased to 5.8% in the year to December 2009, from 4.2% the year before.In comparison, the national average unemployment rate was 6.1% for the year to December 2009.

The number of unemployed people in the region (as measured by the official statistics) is estimated at 7,100 for the year to December 2009.

Figure 3: Regional and national trends in the unemployment rate

annual average, %	Manawatu / Wanganui	New Zealand
Dec 00	6.4	6.2
Dec 01	5.3	5.5
Dec 02	5.3	5.3
Dec 03	4.8	4.8
Dec 04	4.4	4.1
Dec 05	4.5	3.8
Dec 06	4.6	3.9
Dec 07	5.3	3.7
Dec 08	4.2	4.2
Dec 09	5.8	6.1

Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

The Household Labour Force Survey provides an estimate of all persons in the working-age population who during a particular week were without a paid job, available for work and had either actively sought work in the previous four weeks, or had a new job to start within four weeks of the survey week. These numbers will not align exactly with numbers receiving an income tested benefit such as Unemployment Benefit (see next page). There are a range of reasons for this. For example, recipients of income tested benefits can be employed part time up to specified income limits, whereas a respondent to the Household Labour Force Survey must have worked less than an hour during the week being surveyed to count as officially unemployed.

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

The Ministry of Social Development has recently begun to make information on numbers receiving social security benefits available for Territorial Local Authorities. This information also supports display by Regional Council area, the same geographic basis on which other information in this report has been displayed. It will be some time yet before this is available as an annual time-series, so comparisons over time are provided for New Zealand as a whole.

There were 3,890 working aged people receiving unemployment benefits from Work and Income in the Manawatu / Wanganui region at the end of December 2009. Their characteristics are shown in the next table.

Table 2: Working aged unemployment benefit recipients (aged 18-64) in the Manawatu / Wanganui region and nationally during December 2009

	Region		New Zealand		Region's share of New Zealand (%)
	Share (%)	Number	Share (%)	Number
Total		3,890		66,328	5.9
Male	72.9	2,833	71.0	47,092	6.0
Female	27.2	1,056	29.0	19,235	5.5
Maori	42.4	1,650	34.4	22,796	7.2
Pacific People	3.0	115	10.8	7,136	1.6
18-24 years	31.9	1,238	34.0	22,531	5.5
25-39 years	32.5	1,263	33.1	21,921	5.8
40-54 years	25.2	981	23.5	15,560	6.3
55-64 years	10.4	404	9.5	6,307	6.4

Source: Ministry of Social Development

These values occur against a backdrop of significant reductions in the number of current unemployment benefits over time at the national level.

Figure 4: Clients receiving Unemployment Benefits for the whole of New Zealand, December 2005 - December 2009

('000)	Maori	NZ European	Pacific Island	Other
December 2005	18,655	20,919	4,075	7,777
December 2006	14,174	15,573	3,235	5,814
December 2007	8,684	8,706	1,883	3,475
December 2008	11,061	11,804	2,846	4,797
December 2009	22,798	26,049	7,136	10,345

Source: MSD

Notes: Other includes not specified. Values for the end of the December quarter.

GLOSSARY

Working-age population: population aged 15 years and over.

Labour force: number of people who are either in work or are available and actively seeking work (that is, employed or unemployed as defined below).

Employment: number of people in work of one hour or more per week.

Unemployment: number of people who are not in work, but who are available for and actively seeking work.

Not in the labour force: number of people who are not in work and are either not available or not actively seeking work (that is, they are not employed and not unemployed). This includes for example, retired people, students and people at home with children.

Labour force participation rate: proportion of the working-age population that is in the labour force.

Unemployment rate: proportion of the labour force that is unemployed.

Employment rate: proportion of the working-age population that is employed.

Highly skilled workers: legislators, administrators and managers, and professionals.

Skilled workers: technicians and associate professionals, and trades workers.

Semi-skilled/elementary: clerks, services/sales workers, plant/machinery workers, and elementary workers.

Annual average: the average for a whole year (eg year to December 2006).

Annual average percentage change: the percentage change between the average for a whole year (eg the year to December 2006) and the previous year (eg the year to December 2005). Unless stated, all growth rates are annual average percentage changes.

LINKS TO OTHER LABOUR MARKET REPORTS

Annual in-depth regional labour market reports: 12 reports that provide a detailed look at the drivers of regional labour market dynamics with sub-regional (Territorial Authority) information included where available. They contain detailed and wide-ranging labour market statistics supplemented by qualitative information from the regions.

Labour market outlook: provides an outlook for the labour market over the next two years. The forecasts are detailed in a table and accompanied by descriptive analysis and a table of comparative forecasts is presented in an Appendix.

Employment and unemployment: a report that summarises results from the latest Household Labour Force Survey released by Statistics New Zealand.

Wage growth: a report that examines the wage growth measures for the latest quarter from the Labour Cost Index (LCI) and Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) released by Statistics New Zealand. A technical note and data tables are included in the appendices.

Skills in the labour market: summarises quarterly information on skill shortages, primarily focused on the Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion (QSBO) from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) and the Job Vacancy Monitor (JVM) from the Department of Labour.

Contact: Iain McLean Department of Labour Communications Advisor (04) 915-4458

Disclaimer: The Department of Labour has made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this report is reliable, but makes no guarantee of its accuracy or completeness and does not accept any liability for any errors. The information and opinions contained in this report are not intended to be used as a basis for commercial decisions and the Department accepts no liability for any decisions made in reliance on them. The Department may change, add to, delete from, or otherwise amend the contents of this report at any time without notice. The material contained in this report is subject to Crown copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. The Crown copyright protected material may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not being used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context. Where the material is being published or issued to others, the source and copyright status should be acknowledged. The permission to reproduce Crown copyright protected material does not extend to any material in this report that is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material should be obtained from the copyright holders.

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