Employment rates high in Southland region

11 July 2007

Employment rates are high in the Southland region, with 69% of the working age population in employment at the time of the 2006 Census, compared with 65% nationally, a new report released today by the Department of Labour finds.

“Unemployment* remained below the national average, and was especially low in Southland district at just 1.9%,” said Paul Crack, Labour Market Knowledge Manager Otago-Southland, Department of Labour.

The Annual In-Depth Regional Report for the Southland Region describes in detail the characteristics of the Southland 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 Southland Regional Council boundaries and, where available, the constituent territorial authority boundaries of Southland, Gore and Invercargill districts,” Mr Crack said.

“On average, the Southland region is becoming more highly qualified. Between 2001 and 2006 the share of people in Southland with post school qualifications increased, while the share of the population with lower qualifications declined.

“Employment growth has been in high skilled and skilled occupations. The property and business services industry added about 400 jobs between 2001 and 2006, followed by the retail trade and health and community services (300 new jobs each).

“The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry is the largest industry employer in Southland region, particularly in the Southland district, and manufacturing is the second largest employer.
“Employment contracted in both these areas with 1500 fewer jobs in the manufacturing industry and 400 fewer jobs in agriculture, forestry and fishing industry.

“People in Southland are more likely to work in smaller businesses than employees nationally. In 2006, 32% of employees in Southland worked in businesses with fewer than 10 employees, compared with 24% nationally.”

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

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

* Southland’s unemployment rate declined from almost 5.3% at the time of the 2001 Census to 3.8% 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 SOUTHLAND population information:

In 2006 almost 91,000 people lived in the Southland region just over 50,000 in Invercargill city. While the number of people living in New Zealand grew by 8% between 2001 and 2006, Southland’s population remained static.