Household Labour Force Survey: September 2009 quarter

Labour market overview – seasonally adjusted

The September 2009 quarter Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) showed further rises in unemployment and the unemployment rate, continuing the trend seen over the past seven quarters. The number of people unemployed reached its highest level in 15 years, while the unemployment rate hit a nine-year high. Employment continued to decline this quarter.

Unemployment increased by 12,000 (9.0 percent) during the September 2009 quarter, to reach 150,000, the highest level since the March 1994 quarter. This increase was largely driven by male unemployment, which rose by 9,000. During the quarter, the unemployment rate increased by 0.5 percentage points, to reach 6.5 percent – the highest level since the March 2000 quarter.

Employment fell by 17,000 (0.8 percent) during the September 2009 quarter and was driven by a decrease in male full-time employment. This decrease was partly offset by an increase in female employment during the quarter.

The labour force participation rate fell by 0.4 percentage points during the quarter, to 68.0 percent.

The total number of actual hours worked decreased by 0.7 percent during the quarter. 

The (unadjusted) working-age population continued to grow during the September 2009 quarter, partly due to positive net permanent and long-term migration.

Employment – seasonally adjusted

Employment decreased by 17,000 (0.8 percent), dropping to 2,154,000 during the September 2009 quarter. This is the lowest number of employed people since the December 2006 quarter. Annually, employment decreased by 1.8 percent

Full-time and part-time employment decreased during the September 2009 quarter. Full-time employment had the larger decrease of 8,000 (0.5 percent), while part-time employment decreased by 5,000 (1.1 percent). In annual terms, part-time employment increased by 3,000 (0.6 percent) and full-time employment decreased by 42,000 (2.5 percent).

Male employment dropped by 20,000 (1.8 percent), to 1,138,000 during the September 2009 quarter. Both male full-time and part-time employment decreased, down by 14,000 (1.3 percent) and 6,000 (4.3 percent), respectively. In annual terms, male employment decreased by 25,000 (2.1 percent), driven by full-time employment, which decreased by 30,000 (2.9 percent). Male part-time employment offset the annual movement, increasing by 5,000 (3.9 percent) during the year to September 2009.

Female employment increased during the September 2009 quarter. There were increases in both full-time and part-time employment, up by 2,000 (0.3 percent) and 1,000 (0.3 percent), respectively. Annually, female employment decreased by 14,000 (1.4 percent). This was driven by full-time employment, which decreased by 12,000 (1.8 percent). Part-time employment decreased by 2,000 (0.7 percent). 

In unadjusted terms, employment for those aged 15–19 years decreased by 22,700 to 116,500 in the year to the September 2009 quarter. For those aged 60–64 years and 65 years and over, employment increased by 13,100 to 146,600 and 6,600 to 81,800, respectively.

Waikato was the only region to show a significant (unadjusted) annual decrease in the number of people employed, down by 17,300 to 192,600. Conversely, Otago had an annual increase of 9,500 to reach 102,700 people employed. 

Employment by industry – unadjusted

Statistics New Zealand has recently implemented the latest version of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC06). ANZSIC06 information has only been coded since the March 2009 quarter in the HLFS, and has been back-cast for earlier periods. For more information on the introduction of ANZSIC06 into the HLFS, please refer to the 'Technical notes' section.

The survey (unadjusted) series recorded that the manufacturing, retail trade and accommodation, and construction industries had the largest annual level decreases, of 27,300, 12,200, and 10,500, respectively. The health care and social assistance, and public administration and safety industries recorded the largest annual level increases of 12,100 and 10,100, respectively.

Unemployment – seasonally adjusted

The number of people unemployed increased by 12,000 (9.0 percent) to reach 150,000 during the September 2009 quarter. This is the highest number of people since the March 1994 quarter. The number of unemployed males increased by 9,000 (12.9 percent) to 80,000 and the number of unemployed females increased by 3,000 (5.0 percent) to 71,000.

Annually, the number of people unemployed increased by 53,000 (53.9 percent). This is the largest annual percentage increase on record. Male and female unemployment increased by 27,000 (52.4 percent) and 25,000 (55.8 percent), respectively.

The unemployment rate continued to rise, reaching 6.5 percent during the September 2009 quarter. This is a 0.5 percentage point quarterly increase, and a 2.2 percentage point annual increase.

During the quarter, the male unemployment rate increased by 0.9 percentage points to reach 6.6 percent, while the female unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to reach 6.5 percent. Annually, both the female and the male unemployment rates increased by 2.3 percentage points. 

Since the September 2008 quarter, there have been significant increases in (unadjusted) unemployment in the Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne/Hawkes Bay, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago regions.

By age group, the largest annual increases in the number of people unemployed were for those aged 15–19-years and 20–24 years, up by 13,200 and 7,300 respectively.  

Working-age population – unadjusted

The working-age population grew by 11,800 (0.3 percent) during the September 2009 quarter, to reach 3,384,000. Part of the increase was due to a net gain from permanent and long-term migration (See International Travel and Migration: September 2009 for more information.) Annually, the working-age population has increased by 45,900 (1.4 percent).

In the year to September 2009, the working-age population increased significantly in the Otago region. 

Labour force participation – seasonally adjusted

The labour force participation rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 68.0 percent, during the September 2009 quarter. On an annual basis, the labour force participation rate was down by 0.6 percentage points. The total labour force decreased by 4,000 (0.2 percent) to 2,304,000 during the September 2009 quarter. Annually, the labour force increased by 13,000 (0.6 percent).

The male labour force participation rate fell by 1.0 percentage points to 74.1 percent during the September 2009 quarter. The female participation rate, conversely, rose by 0.2 percentage points to 62.3 percent. In annual terms, both the male and the female participation rates decreased, by 1.0 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively. 

 

Total hours worked – seasonally adjusted

The total number of actual hours worked per week decreased by 0.7 percent during the September 2009 quarter. The number of usual hours worked per week decreased by 0.2 percent over the same period. Annually, both total number of actual and usual decreased, by 3.1 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

Jobless – unadjusted

The jobless are defined as those people who are either officially unemployed, available but not seeking work, or actively seeking but not available for work. Since the September 2008 quarter, the total number of jobless people has increased by 41.8 percent, to reach 254,000.

Underemployment – unadjusted

The number of underemployed people (employed people who work part-time and would prefer to work more hours) may serve as a measure of underutilised labour in the economy. Of the 499,800 people employed part-time in the September 2009 quarter, 24.4 percent (122,100) preferred to work more hours. This compared with 22.2 percent in the June 2009 quarter and 16.5 percent in the September 2008 quarter.

In the September 2009 quarter, 31.2 percent of males working part-time preferred to work more hours compared with 21.8 percent of females.

Duration of unemployment – unadjusted

In the year to the September 2009 quarter, short-term unemployment (those unemployed for 26 weeks or less) increased by 26,300 (37.3 percent) to 96,700. During the same period, the number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for longer than 26 weeks) more than doubled, reaching 35,500. Of the total number of unemployed people in the September 2009 quarter, 66.9 percent had been so for less than 26 weeks, while 24.5 percent had been unemployed for longer than 26 weeks.---PDF BREAK---

Participation in formal study – unadjusted

During the September 2009 quarter, 314,200 were participating in formal study, a 9.3 percent increase from the same quarter in 2008. Unemployed people were the most likely to be involved in formal study in the September 2009 quarter, with 15.0 percent participating. This compares with 11.4 percent of people who were not in the labour force, and 7.8 percent of those who were employed.

Ethnic group statistics – unadjusted

Ethnicity series are now published using the single/combination output method of classification. With this method, people are counted just once according to the ethnic group or combination of ethnic groups they have reported. Please refer to the 'Technical notes' section for more information.

In annual terms, unadjusted unemployment rates increased for all ethnic groups except the Middle Eastern/Latin American/African group (MELAA).

Longer time series

The following graphs show the HLFS series for the number of people employed, the labour force participation rate, and the unemployment rate over a 15-year period. A complete time series from March 1986 onwards is available on request.

For technical information contact: 
Lourdes Vivo
Wellington 04 931 4600
Email: info@stats.govt.nz  

Next release ...

Household Labour Force Survey: December 2009 quarter will be released on 
4 February 2010.