Northland labour force participation reaches historic highs, report finds

11 July 2007

Northland’s labour market is performing strongly, a new report released today by the Department of Labour finds.

“Labour force participation rates in Northland have reached historic highs,” said Ken Kawiti, Labour Market Knowledge Manager Whangarei, Department of Labour.

“Unemployment has declined*, qualification levels are rising and employment growth has come in high-skilled jobs.”

The Annual In-Depth Regional Report for the Northland Region describes in detail the characteristics of the Northland 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 Northland Regional Council boundaries and, where available, the constituent territorial authority boundaries of Far North, Whangarei and Kaipara districts,” Mr Kawiti said.

“In March 2007, Northland’s labour force participation rate was 66% (68.4% nationally), up from 60.9% in March 2004 (66.5% nationally)**.

“The report provides insights into the opportunities that exist in improving skills and employment performance in Northland. As the regional population is expected to continue growing, looking forward, we can also expect more growth in the labour force. It is good to see that employment growth has been in high-skill jobs, but like much of New Zealand, there are also skill shortages in Northland. Easing this skill shortage will require a combination of up-skilling of existing resources, productivity increases (higher value produced per hour of work) and migration of skilled labour.”

Small to medium sized businesses are the main employers in Northland with 70% of employees in 2006 working in businesses than had less than 50 employees, compared with 58% nationally. Growth has been in the property and business services industry, which added nearly 1800 jobs between 2001 and 2006, followed by construction (915 more jobs) and health and community services (846 more jobs).

The 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 Department of Labour. The qualitative information has been gathered at a regional level.

• Read the Annual In-Depth Regional Report for the Northland Region
• Read the Annual In-Depth Regional Report for each region.

* Northland’s unemployment rate declined from 10.2% at the time of the 2001 Census to 6.5% 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.

* * This participation rate is from Statistics New Zealand’s Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS).

ENDS

Key northland population information:

The population of Northland region grew by almost 8500 people, or 6%, between 2001 and 2006 to 148,470. Half lived in Whangarei district (74,463 residents), 55,845 people lived in Far North district and 18,135 in Kaipara District. Northland has a relatively large Maori population (29% in 2006), larger than the national average (14% in 2006) and a small proportion of Northlanders are migrants. In 2006 13% of Northland’s population was born overseas, compared with 22% nationally. Across each of the three Northland districts compared with national figures there is a higher proportion of people aged under 15, a lower than average proportion of people aged 15 to 39, and a higher than average proportion of older residents.