STATEMENT OF FORECAST SERVICE PERFORMANCE FOR 2006/2007

VOTE EMPLOYMENT

Output class: Labour market information

Scope

This output class involves the provision and analysis of labour market information, analysis and validation of regional labour market information, participation on regional and sector labour market focused groups, and making connections back to and across government to inform and influence the national perspective.

The Department will identify the opportunities and constraints within New Zealand’s labour market and work with key stakeholders to identify, broker and facilitate local and sector ownership of the best response to these opportunities and constraints.

Contribution to the long-term goals

These services contribute to three of the Department’s long-term goals:

Our place in the world: New Zealand will prosper through its connections with the rest of the world.

Our workforce: The skills of our workers will ensure New Zealand enterprises are leaders internationally.

Our people: All New Zealanders will be able to grow and develop through access to well-paid and meaningful employment.

Contribution to the medium-term priorities

These services contribute to the following medium-term priorities:

Supporting and promoting the transformation of New Zealand workplaces to become high-performing workplaces, and to achieve high-quality working lives by focusing on the drivers of workplace productivity, including skills, safe and healthy workplace cultures, decent work, and excellent employment relationships.

Influencing the supply of skilled labour by:

better targeting the immigration programme
working with industry and education sectors to match educational services to the needs of our workers, employers and the economy.

Supporting increased labour market participation by leading the Government’s work programme on:

enhancing parents’ and other carers’ choices about work and family arrangements
assisting transitions for youth into employment
enhancing employment for groups under-represented in the labour force.

Activities

We do this by:

collecting, integrating and analysing a range of qualitative and quantitative data and information to provide a profile of New Zealand’s labour market at the national, regional, industry and sector levels, now and into the future
reporting on employment (including occupations) and labour market trends at the national, regional and sector level, as well as responding to requests for tailored labour market information
translating information to a regional/local and/or sector level to ensure local knowledge informs policy and appropriate interventions are designed, and feeding this information to decision-makers so that local knowledge can inform policy
progressively building an up-to-date knowledge and understanding of New Zealand’s labour market dynamics, including forecasting of future trends, opportunities and risk areasat a local, regional, sector and national level to inform the Department’s on-going service delivery.
building relationships with sector bodies such as industry training organisations, employee associations, employer associations, economic development agencies and local government
developing an understanding of sector/region needs and opportunities and providing contextual and comparative information on their labour market, including providing knowledge about similar labour markets
working with key players to identify issues impacting on the operation of the labour market at a national, regional and sectoral level and working with them to design responses
ensuring the Department’s service delivery is aligned to its authoritative labour market information base
providing ministerial servicing.

Performance measures	Forecast standards
Customers and stakeholders are satisfied with the Department’s information on labour market issues at national, sector and regional levels.	Customers will be surveyed during 2006/07. Results from 2006/07 will be used to inform a baseline measure for future years.
The Department communicates the labour market story at a national, sector and regional level through a variety of media to a variety of recipients.	The Department will report on progress six-monthly.
Positive progress will be made towards labour market development in all regions.	Results from 2006/07 will be used to inform a baseline measure for future years.
The Department works with groupings of key labour market players to provide information and develop strategies for addressing labour market constraints and opportunities. This will include at least three experimental projects involving new ways of addressing labour market issues at a sector and/or regional level.	Three projects, which have: • the potential to make a difference to the area being tested • high-quality evaluation built in • the potential to transfer into other sectors/regions. At least two of these projects will be completed within 2006/07.

COSTS

$000 (FIGURES ARE GST EXCLUSIVE)	Estimated Actuals for Year ending 30 June 2006	Forecast for Year ending 30 June 2007
Revenue:
Crown	9,041	9,267
Department	92	92
Other	-	-
Total Revenue	9,133	9,359
Total Expenses	8,633	9,359

Output class: Policy, research and evaluation

Scope

This output class involves the provision of strategic advice and information about the role the labour market, and intervention in the labour market, can play in the economic transformation of New Zealand and in improving outcomes for families.

The Labour Market and Employment Strategy “Better Work, Working Better” is an example of this output, and outlines how the labour market and employment are important links between New Zealand’s social and economic outcomes. A labour market that has improved participation in quality work, with growing productivity, enables the achievement of both sustainable growth and opportunities for all New Zealanders.

Contribution to the long-term goals

These services contribute to the Department’s long-term goal:

Our People: All New Zealanders will be able to grow and develop through access to well-paid and meaningful employment.

Contribution to the medium-term priorities

These services contribute to supporting increased labour market participation by leading the Government’s work programme on:

enhancing parents’ and other carers’ choices about work and family arrangements
assisting transitions for youth into employment
enhancing employment for groups under-represented in the labour force.

Activities

The Government’s economic transformation objectives, which include developing a skilled and productive workforce, and improving the number of globally-competitive New Zealand firms, begin with people. Enabling more people to participate in higher-value work (both in terms of productivity and pay), enables New Zealanders to achieve their desires for quality of life and good outcomes for families and dependents. Great strides in lifting overall levels of participation in work have been made, and it is important to maintain this. Labour scarcity is a key driver for enterprise to focus on higher-value work and lifting productivity.

As we work to transform our economy and improve outcomes for families by focusing on higher-value work, we need to ensure that our workforce has the key skills to enable them to deliver on that higher-value work. This means addressing skills development at all levels, from functional literacy to managerial and leadership capability to lift enterprises’ performance. We also need to attract and retain key skilled individuals from around the world, and make better use of people’s skills in higher-value work, enabling New Zealand to compete in the international marketplace.

Activities under this output expense in 2006/07 include:

Leading policy development and debate on workforce and labour market issues, to influence the actions of government agencies, employers, employees and others such as potential learners.
Providing strategic advice on employment and skills issues, ensuring that policy matches, enhances and drives the achievement of New Zealand’s workforce goals for a transformative labour market.
Overseeing and coordinating the work streams of the Government’s employment and labour market strategies, ensuring they are linked to broader objectives for economic transformation and improving outcomes for families.
Leading the Government’s work programme on:
• enhancing parents’ and other carers’ choices about work and family arrangements
• assisting transitions for young people into employment
• enhancing employment for groups under-represented in the labour force
Influencing the supply of skills by working with industry and education sectors to match educational services to the needs of workers, employers and the economy.
Leading Government initiatives to address skill and labour shortages by working with key agencies such as the MoE, TEC, MSD and MED.
Working with key agencies and industry groups to implement a series of initiatives to shift workplace practice to help employers improve the literacy, numeracy and language skills of their employees, and better utilise those skills in order to lift workplace productivity.
Providing research and analysis of national
and international workforce trends and the connection between local and international labour markets, to improve understanding, and inform decisions and actions related to employment. This includes the development
of new statistical collections to support strategic policy advice and research and evaluation.
Providing ministerial servicing, including replies to correspondence, parliamentary questions, official information requests, speeches and briefing notes and other information requested by the Minister.

Performance measures	Forecast standards
The Minister responsible for employment, and related labour market Ministers, are satisfied with the quality of the Department’s employment policy advice. Appendix 1 sets out the quality standards for policy advice.	Meet standard
The Minister is satisfied with the quality of the Department’s ministerial servicing.	Meet standard
The policy development process and resultant advice provided is assessed as high quality through external and internal review of projects.	Meet standard

COSTS

$000 (FIGURES ARE GST EXCLUSIVE)	Estimated Actuals for Year ending 30 June 2006	Forecast for Year ending 30 June 2007
Revenue:
Crown	4,314	5,753
Department	75	75
Other	-	-
Total Revenue	4,389	5,828
Total Expenses	4,389	5,828