Household Labour Force Survey: June 2009 quarter

Labour market overview – seasonally adjusted

The June 2009 quarter Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) showed continuing adjustment in the labour market. As seen over the past six quarters, unemployment and the unemployment rate continued to rise, with the number of unemployed at a 10-year high. Employment continued to decline this quarter.

Unemployment increased by 24,000 (20.6 percent) during the June 2009 quarter, to reach 138,000, the highest level since the June 1999 quarter. This increase was largely driven by female unemployment, which rose by 15,000. During the quarter, the unemployment rate increased by 1.0 percentage point, to reach 6.0 percent, the highest level since the September 2000 quarter.

Employment decreased by 10,000 (0.4 percent) during the June 2009 quarter. This was driven entirely by female full-time employment, which fell by 16,000. Male employment increased during the quarter, which comprised a decrease in full-time employment and an increase in part-time employment.

The unadjusted series shows that underemployment increased on an annual basis. This increase was larger for males than for females.

The total number of actual hours worked per week decreased by 1.9 percent during the quarter. On an annual basis, actual hours worked per week has fallen by 3.5 percent.

The working-age population continued to grow during the June 2009 quarter, partly due to a net gain in permanent and long-term migration.

Employment – seasonally adjusted

Employment decreased by 10,000 (0.4 percent) to 2,169,000 during the June 2009 quarter. Since the June 2008 quarter, employment has decreased by 20,000 (0.9 percent).

In the June 2009 quarter, full-time employment decreased by 18,000 (1.1 percent), while part-time employment increased by 7,000 (1.3 percent).

Male employment increased by 2,000 (0.2 percent) to 1,159,000 during the June 2009 quarter. There was an increase in male part-time employment, which at 147,000 is the highest level since the survey began. On an annual basis, male employment decreased by 7,000 (0.6 percent), which comprised a 16,000 (1.6 percent) decrease in male full-time employment, offset by a rise of 9,000 (6.6 percent) in male part-time employment.

Female employment decreased by 12,000 (1.2 percent) to 1,011,000 during the June 2009 quarter. The decrease was driven by a 16,000 decrease in female full-time employment. Female part-time employment increased by 1,000 (0.3 percent). On an annual basis, employment for females decreased by 13,000 (1.2 percent), with full-time and part-time female employment decreasing by 10,000 (1.4 percent) and 2,000 (0.7 percent), respectively.---PDF BREAK---

In the June 2009 quarter, the survey (unadjusted) series showed annual decreases by 19,700 and 15,600 in the number of employed in the Auckland and Canterbury regions, respectively. During the same period, employment in the 60–64-year age group and the 65+ age group increased by 10,600 and 8,700, respectively, while employment in the 15–19-year age group decreased by 23,400.

Unemployment – seasonally adjusted

The number of people unemployed increased by 24,000 (20.6 percent) during the June 2009 quarter, to reach 138,000, the highest number of unemployed in ten years. Much of this increase was driven by female unemployment, which rose by 15,000 (29.7 percent) during the quarter, while male unemployment increased by 8,000 (13.0 percent).

On an annual basis, the number of people unemployed increased by 48,000 (52.6 percent). Female unemployment increased by 25,000 (59.4 percent) and male unemployment increased by 22,000 (46.6 percent) during the year.

The unemployment rate reached 6.0 percent in the latest quarter, an increase of 1.0 percentage point since the March 2009 quarter. The unemployment rate was higher for females (6.3 percent) than it was for males (5.7 percent).

On an annual basis, the unemployment rate increased by 2.0 percentage points. Since the June 2008 quarter, the female unemployment rate increased by 2.3 percentage points while the male unemployment rate rose by 1.7 percentage points.

Working-age population – unadjusted

The working-age population (WAP) grew by 11,500 (0.3 percent) during the June 2009 quarter, and by 41,900 (1.3 percent) during the year. The increase in WAP was partly due to a 1,400 net gain in permanent and long-term migration during the June 2009 quarter.

Labour force participation – seasonally adjusted

The labour force participation rate rose by 0.1 percentage points during the quarter, to reach 68.4 percent. The male labour force participation rate rose to 75.2 percent (up 0.4 percentage points), while the female labour force participation rate dipped to 62.1 percent, from 62.2 percent in the previous quarter. Despite this decrease, the female labour force participation rate in the latest quarter is still the fourth highest since the survey began.

Since the June 2008 quarter, the labour force participation rate has fallen by 0.1 percentage points. Female participation has remained constant, while the male labour force participation rate has fallen by 0.1 percentage points during the year.

The total labour force increased by 14,000 (0.6 percent) during the June 2009 quarter, to 2,307,000. This increase was mainly driven by a rise of 10,000 (0.8 percent) in the male labour force. The number of females in the labour force rose by 4,000 (0.3 percent).

Annually, the total labour force increased by 28,000 (1.2 percent), with the number of males increasing by 15,000 (1.3 percent) and the number of females increasing by 13,000 (1.2 percent) since the June 2008 quarter. Half of this annual increase occurred during the June 2009 quarter.

Total hours worked – seasonally adjusted

During the June 2009 quarter, actual and usual hours worked per week decreased by 1,367,000 (1.9 percent) and 1,321,000 (1.7 percent), respectively. On an annual basis, actual and usual hours worked per week decreased by 3.5 percent and 1.9 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 June 2008 quarter, the total number of jobless people increased by 38.5 percent, to reach 236,100. This rise was primarily driven by the increased number of people unemployed. Also contributing to this increase was the number of discouraged workers, which more than doubled to reach 6,400.

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 514,100 people employed part-time in the June 2009 quarter, 22.2 percent (114,300) preferred to work more hours. This compared with 21.2 percent in the March 2009 quarter and 16.5 percent in the June 2008 quarter.

In the June 2009 quarter, 28.7 percent of males working part-time preferred to work more hours compared with 19.5 percent of females.

Duration of unemployment – unadjusted

On an annual basis, short-term unemployment (those unemployed for 26 weeks or less) increased by 32,500 (50.3 percent), to 97,100. During the same period, the number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for longer than 26 weeks) more than doubled, reaching 22,100. Of the total number of unemployed people in the June 2009 quarter, 72.7 percent had been so for less than 26 weeks, while 16.5 percent had been unemployed for longer than 26 weeks.

Participation in formal study – unadjusted

During the June 2009 quarter, 312,300 were participating in formal study, a 12.0 percent increase from the same quarter in 2008. Unemployed people were the most likely to be involved in formal study in the June 2009 quarter, with 12.3 percent participating. Of all employed people, 8.3 percent participated in formal study while 10.9 percent of people who were not in the labour force participated in formal study.

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 of this release for more information.

In annual terms, unadjusted unemployment rates increased significantly for the European only, Māori only, Pacific peoples only, Asian only, ‘other ethnicity’ only, European/Māori and the ‘two or more groups not elsewhere included’ ethnic groups.

The unemployment rate for all people who identified with the Māori ethnic group (including those who identified with other groups as well) was 12.0 percent for the June 2009 quarter. This is known as the total response Māori unemployment rate. There has been an increase of 4.7 percentage points since the June 2008 quarter, when the total response Māori unemployment rate was 7.3 percent.

Longer time series

The following graphs show the HLFS series for the number of 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 or Sharon Snelgrove
Wellington 04 931 4600
Email: info@stats.govt.nz.  

Next release ...

Household Labour Force Survey: September 2009 quarter will be released on 5 November 2009.