Employment rates increase across Taranaki region

11 July 2007

Employment rates have increased throughout the Taranaki region and were above the national average of 65% in Stratford and South Taranaki districts and showed strong growth in New Plymouth district (63.8%), a new report released today by the Department of Labour finds.

“Unemployment has declined*, labour force participation rates across the region have increased and employment growth has been in high-skilled and skilled occupational groups,” said Sheree Long, Labour Market Knowledge Manager Taranaki, Department of Labour.

The Annual In-Depth Regional Report for the Taranaki Region describes in detail the characteristics of the Taranaki 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 Taranaki Regional Council boundaries and, where available, the constituent territorial authority boundaries of New Plymouth, Stratford and South Taranaki districts,” Ms Long said.

“The labour force participation rate for Taranaki increased between 2001 and 2006 to 67.8%. The increase in labour force participation rates has been most significant in New Plymouth district. The participation rate was highest in South Taranaki district in 2006, at 70.1%, well above the national average of 68.5%

“Most new jobs were in property and business services, which added 576 new jobs, and construction, which added 534 new jobs between 2001 and 2006.

“Although employment in agriculture experienced a decline, it is important to Taranaki’s economy and still accounted for the second largest share of the total regional employment in 2006, at 14.7%. About two-thirds of the farms in Taranaki are dedicated to dairy production, and produce about 20% of New Zealand milk production.

“The Oil and Gas sector is expected to remain important to the regional economy as all of New Zealand’s petroleum production (crude oil, condensate, naphtha, natural gas, LPG and CNG) is obtained from the Taranaki Basin.”

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

* Taranaki’s unemployment rate declined from 7.8% at the time of the 2001 Census to 4.7% in 2006. The majority of unemployment data in the Annual In-Depth Regional Reports comes from Population Census 2006 (to 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 taranaki population information:

In 2006 104,127 people lived in the Taranaki region, concentrated mostly with 68,901 living in the New Plymouth District. In 2006 Taranaki region had a relatively large European (74%, compared with 65% nationally) and Maori (15%, compared with 14% nationally) population and fewer Asian (2%, compared with 9% nationally) and Pacific Peoples (1%, compared with 7% nationally). In 2006, 11% of the population was born overseas compared with 22% nationally.