Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay show strong labour market performance

11 July 2007

While labour force participation has risen in both Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, the two parts of the region face quite different futures, a new report released today by the Department of Labour finds.

“The labour market performance is good at the moment and unemployment* has declined across the whole region, but Gisborne has some unique challenges that can be further analysed from this report,” said George Rarere, Labour Market Knowledge Manager Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, Department of Labour.

The Annual In-Depth Regional Report for the Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay Region describes in detail the characteristics of the Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay regional labour market, the changes it has undergone and some key outcomes of these changes.

The report is one of 12 covering regions from Northland to Southland, which offer one of the first sub-regional presentations of data from Population Census 2006. Stakeholders, including strategy and policy makers and labour market participants, have said they want access to this information which gives a once-in-five-year snapshot of the labour market at a particularly fine breakdown.

“Information is based on the Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay Regional Councils’ boundaries and, where available, the constituent territorial authority boundaries of Napier city and Gisborne, Wairoa, Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay districts,” Mr Rarere said.

“There is some diversity across this region, which is why it is good to be able to identify sub-regional statistics within this report and analyse the different layers that exist here.

“While participation rates in these areas are at an historic high, the labour force of Wairoa, Central Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne districts is likely to decline in the next decade as population in these areas is projected to decline. Gisborne had one of the lowest labour force participation rates of any region in New Zealand in 2006. One-third of people aged 15 years and above was not in the labour force.

“There are a number of social and geographical factors contributing to this. North of Gisborne city there are no scheduled transport services and in some parts of the East Coast the rural population is isolated and much of the work is seasonal.

“The primary sector is important to Gisborne region, accounting for 17.5% of total employment in 2006. Forestry and tourism are projected to grow in the future.

“Employment growth has been strongest in health and community services (up 210 jobs to 10.6% of employment), property and business services (up 387 jobs to 8.3% of employment) and construction (up 204 jobs to 6.2% of employment).

“Within Hawke’s Bay agriculture is also particularly significant. Hawke’s Bay businesses export more than 50% of New Zealand’s pip fruit and stone fruit. The importance of these industries means a strong demand for fruit pickers, especially in the peak seasonal period.

“It is likely that the Hawke’s Bay will be one of the regions to benefit from the Department of Labour’s recently implemented Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme to address skill shortages in the primary industries. This scheme allows employers who cannot find suitable New Zealand residents to follow a process that allows them to employ non-New Zealand residents for defined periods.

“Employment growth in Hawke’s Bay has been in the retail trade (up 1167 jobs to 13.6% of employment), property and business services (up 1635 jobs to 9.5% of employment) and construction (up 1143 jobs to 6.2% of employment).”

he annual reports combine both quantitative and qualitative market information. The data comes mainly from Population Census 2006, with some additional data from Statistics New Zealand surveys and labour market information from the Department of Labour. The qualitative information has been gathered at a regional level.

• Read the Annual In-Depth Regional Report for the Gisborne and Hawke's Bay Region
• Read the Annual In-Depth Regional Report for each region.

* Gisborne region’s unemployment rate declined from 10.4% at the time of the 2001 Census to 7.2% in 2006. Hawke’s Bay region’s unemployment rate declined from 7.7% at the time of the 2001 Census to 4.6% in 2006. The majority of unemployment data in the Annual In-Depth Regional Reports comes from Population Census 2006 (at March 2006), which shows a national unemployment rate of 5.1%. 

The Annual In-Depth Regional reports use Census of Population calculations of unemployment and other labour market variables, as estimates from this source are more robust for small areas, especially at the territorial authority level. Unemployment figures at a national and regional level are more generally sourced from the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), which shows an annual average national unemployment rate of 3.7% for the year ended March 2007.

The HLFS and the Census of Population both produce estimates of labour force statistics such as unemployment and labour force participation rates. Because these two sources are gathered differently, they can produce different estimates. The HLFS is the official measure of labour market information for New Zealand.

ENDS

Key gisborne and hawkes bay population information:

In 2006 44,499 people resided in Gisborne region and 147,783 in Hawke’s Bay. Napier city, with 55,359 residents grew by 3% from 2001. As a whole, the Hawke’s Bay regional population grew by nearly 5000 people, or 3%, between 2001 and 2006. The Gisborne regional population remained fairly static with only 1% growth, compared with 8% growth across the country as a whole. Maori made up a large proportion in both Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay regions. The most notable in Gisborne district where the Maori ethnic group made up 44% of the total population.