This section contains archived information that has been retained for reference purposes. To view current reports, please go to the Labour Market Information section.
This is the first annual report on labour market outcomes for Pacific Island people in New Zealand. It focuses on changes in the past six years and prospects for the next two years. Data are from the quarterly Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) from Statistics New Zealand and are averaged across a year to reduce sample errors and seasonality, unless otherwise specified. This report does not deal with social outcomes in New Zealand or with impacts on Pacific Island economies. Terms are defined in Appendix I.
The terms ‘Pacific Island people’ or ‘Pacific Peoples’ are used in this report to refer to anyone living in New Zealand who has identified themselves in the quarterly Household Labour Force Survey as Pacific Islanders. The term includes Pacific Islanders born in and living in New Zealand, and Pacific Islanders who have migrated – either long-term or permanently - from the Pacific Islands to New Zealand. Note: Statistics New Zealand uses the term ‘Pacific Peoples’.
With robust economic growth in New Zealand, labour market conditions have improved considerably for Pacific Peoples1 over the last six years. Since 2000, more Pacific Peoples are in work in New Zealand, fewer are unemployed, and average wages have risen. While growth in wages and employment has been impressive, this is off a low base. Key data can be found in Table 1.
Employment growth for Pacific Peoples in New Zealand has been high at 3.8% per annum on average since 2000. This expansion in employment is higher than the economy-wide average of 2.6% and exceeds that of European (1.7%) and Maori (3.6%).
A closer look shows that Pacific Peoples’ employment has expanded beyond average in high (employment) growth sectors such as construction, health & community services, education, and wholesale & retail trade. However, Pacific Peoples have also increased their employment share in the lower-growing manufacturing sector while they have not benefited from expansion in other high growth areas such as accommodation, cafes & restaurants.
The Pacific Peoples’ labour force in New Zealand has grown strongly due to robust growth in the working-age population and a rise in the rate at which Pacific Peoples participate in the labour force. The Pacific Peoples’ participation rate rose from 60.4% in March 2000 to 62.7% in March 2006. However, this is still below European (69.6%) and Maori levels (67.1%).
The unemployment rate for Pacific Peoples in New Zealand continued to fall in the year to March 2006, down to 6.4%. This rate declined from 13.0% in 2000 and is only just above the 19-year low of 6.2% recorded in the second half of 2005. This should be compared to the economy-wide unemployment rate of 3.7% for the year ending March 2006. The fall in the Pacific Peoples’ unemployment rate was greater than the fall for European (4.9% to 2.7%) and only slightly less than the fall for Maori (15.5% to 8.6%).
While the unemployment rate for Pacific Peoples (6.4%) is lower than that for Maori (8.6%), the lower rate at which Pacific Peoples participate in the labour market means that the proportion of Pacific Peoples employed is on balance lower than that of Maori. In March 2006, the employment rate for Pacific Peoples was 58.7% compared to 61.3% for Maori.
| measure | 2000 | 2006 | Change (#) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employed | 71.7 | 89.9 | 18.2 |
| Unemployed | 10.7 | 6.2 | -4.6 |
| Labour force | 82.4 | 96.0 | 13.6 |
| Not in the labour force | 54.2 | 57.1 | 2.9 |
| Working-age population | 136.6 | 153.1 | 16.5 |
| Employment rate (%) | 52.5 | 58.7 | 6.2 |
| Labour force participation rate (%) | 60.4 | 62.7 | 2.3 |
| Unemployment rate (%) | 13.0 | 6.4 | -6.6 |
| Primary sector | 1.7 | 2.8 | 1.1 |
| Secondary sector | 25.7 | 28.8 | 3.2 |
| Service sector | 44.1 | 57.5 | 13.5 |
| High-skilled occupations | 8.1 | 11.7 | 3.6 |
| Skilled occupations | 11.8 | 14.3 | 2.6 |
| Semi-skilled occupations | 35.7 | 47.9 | 12.2 |
| Low-skilled occupations | 15.4 | 15.7 | 0.4 |
Source: Household Labour Force Survey, Statistics New Zealand. Notes: figures may not sum to total due to rounding, the secondary sector includes manufacturing, utilities and construction.
| measure | Change (%) | Economy- wide change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Employed | 25.3 | 16.9 |
| Unemployed | -42.7 | -35.6 |
| Labour force | 16.5 | 13.4 |
| Not in the labour force | 5.4 | 0.5 |
| Working-age population | 12.1 | 9.0 |
| Employment rate (%) | - | 4.4a |
| Labour force participation rate (%) | - | 2.7a |
| Unemployment rate (%) | - | -2.8a |
| Primary sector | 64.2 | -3.9 |
| Secondary sector | 12.3 | 11.8 |
| Service sector | 30.6 | 21.3 |
| High-skilled occupations | 44.3 | 29.2 |
| Skilled occupations | 21.7 | 15.2 |
| Semi-skilled occupations | 34.3 | 14.7 |
| Low-skilled occupations | 2.3 | -3.6 |
Source: Household Labour Force Survey, Statistics New Zealand. Notes: figures may not sum to total due to rounding, the secondary sector includes manufacturing, utilities and construction.
a) percentage point change rather than percentage change
Although average hourly earnings for Pacific Peoples in New Zealand rose by 3.2% per annum on average between June 1999 and June 2005, from $12.55 to $15.20, this growth was lower than that for European (4.1%) and Maori (4.0%). The reason for below average wage growth for Pacific Peoples is because they are over-represented in low-skilled occupations which have experienced relatively slower wage growth over this period. Nevertheless, in real terms (after adjusting for inflation), wage growth for Pacific Peoples averaged 0.8% per annum over these six years.
Labour market conditions for Pacific men have improved more than those for Pacific women. The unemployment rate for Pacific men fell considerably from 13.7% in March 2000 to 5.8% in March 2006, while the rate for Pacific women fell from 12.2% to 7.1%. In addition, the participation rate for Pacific men has risen at a faster pace than for Pacific women in the past six years.
The occupations of Pacific workers are more concentrated in general and tend to be low skilled: plant & machine operators & assemblers, service & sales, and elementary. In the year to March 2006, 71% of Pacific Peoples were employed in either semi-skilled or low-skilled occupations (down 1 percentage point since 2000) compared to 49% for non-Pacific Peoples. The younger age distribution (the median age for Pacific Peoples was 21 in 2001 compared to 35 for the whole population) and the fact that Pacific Peoples have a lower level of qualifications on average may help explain this.
A more detailed break-down by occupation shows that in general, highly skilled employment has grown above average and that Pacific Peoples’ employment has grown faster than average amongst highly skilled occupations. On the other hand, their employment has also grown faster than average amongst semi-skilled and unskilled, which in general expanded below average.
Pacific Peoples in New Zealand are concentrated in the Auckland region.2 According to the 2001 Census, 67% of Pacific Peoples lived in the Auckland region, compared to 28% for non-Pacific Peoples. Within the Auckland region, most Pacific Peoples lived in Manukau City, Auckland City and Waitakere. Working-age population growth has been relatively high for Pacific Peoples over the last decade averaging 1.9% per annum compared to 1.4% for non-Pacific Peoples, which has helped drive working-age population growth of 2.0% in the Auckland region.
Figure 1 shows that with the tightening of the New Zealand labour market, the gap between Pacific Peoples and non-Pacific Peoples’ unemployment rates has narrowed considerably over the last six years, falling to 2.8 percentage points in March 2006 (6.4% for Pacific Peoples compared to 3.6% for non-Pacific Peoples) from 6.7 percentage points in March 2000 (13.0% for Pacific Peoples compared to 6.3% for non-Pacific Peoples).
The difference between labour force participation rates, however, has marginally increased, with Pacific Peoples at 62.7% and non-Pacific Peoples much higher at 68.3% in March 2006 (this gap of 5.7 percentage points in March 2006 compares to the 5.2 percentage point gap in March 2000).
The proportion of Pacific Peoples employed in low-skilled occupations has decreased from 21% in March 2000 to 17% in March 2006. This has been due to increases in the number of Pacific Peoples employed in high-skilled occupations (11% in 2000 to 13% in 2006) and semi-skilled occupations (50% in 2000 to 53% in 2006). While Pacific Peoples still have a much higher proportion of workers employed in low-skilled occupations compared to non-Pacific Peoples, the disparity has reduced over the last six years.
The Pacific Peoples’ share of total unemployment in the year to March 2006 (8%) remains substantially larger than the Pacific Peoples’ share of the labour force (4%) and the Pacific Peoples’ share of the working-age population (5%). This points to continuing disadvantages which can be related to standard indicators of unemployment likelihood such as age, experience, education and location.
Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand
Nevertheless, the fall in the number of Pacific Peoples unemployed over the period 2000-2006 of 43% was higher than the 35% fall for non-Pacific Peoples. Therefore, in terms of unemployment levels, Pacific Peoples have improved relatively to non-Pacific Peoples.
Recent projections by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) suggest that the 2001 wage gap between Pacific Peoples and non-Pacific Peoples of 82% would remain at around 85% by 2021 in a business as usual scenario. However, this gap would close to about 96% if education and training levels of the current generation of Pacific Peoples’ children would be the same as those of non-Pacific Peoples.
Pacific Peoples share many characteristics of new immigrants. New migrants (in New Zealand less than two years) had a large rise in their labour force participation rate over the past five years to 63.8% in the year to March 2006. In the year to March 2006, their unemployment rate fell to 7.3%, down from 11.9% in the year to March 2001 but still above the national average.
Immigration is a significant component of population growth for Pacific Peoples in New Zealand. In 2001, 42% of Pacific Peoples in New Zealand were born overseas (97% in the Pacific Islands) compared to only 19% for non-Pacific Peoples.
There has been a fall in the number of Pacific-born people migrating from New Zealand to Australia since 2001. In the six months to March 2001, 934 Pacific-born New Zealand citizens migrated to Australia from New Zealand. This fell to 419 in the six months to March 2002, before averaging just under 500 over the next four years.
There was a net gain of 4,400 permanent and long-term (PLT) migrants from the Pacific over the year to March 2006. This is up from 3,200 in the year before and 2,000 over the year to March 2000. The increase in net PLT migration from the Pacific in the last year has been driven by a substantial rise in PLT arrivals while PLT departures have remained relatively steady.
Net PLT migration from the Pacific has averaged 2,400 people per annum over the last 15 years. This is similar to the central projection (from Statistics NZ) of 2,500 per annum for the next 15 years.
Currently New Zealand operates a ballot quota system with a maximum of 1,100 Samoan people per annum allowed to enter, 250 from Tonga, 250 from Fiji, 75 from Kiribati and 75 people from Tuvalu per annum on the condition of a bona fide employment contract. The impact of the ballots is that migrants are drawn from across the Pacific society, not just the high skilled as is the case with selection under the skilled migrant category. Although the ballot-based residence schemes are significant they only account for a small proportion of total ‘work right’ (including almost 6000 residence and more than 8000 temporary work visas/permits) approvals over the last couple of years.
In terms of pay, there are two key differences between new migrants from the Pacific and the rest of the New Zealand workforce: little or no New Zealand work experience; and few or no relevant qualifications. For new Pacific migrants, the common pay rates tend to be the median wage rate for those with no qualifications with the minimum wage of $10.25 being the floor. Many other factors will influence where an average wage rate for new Pacific migrants will sit within this range (or outside), including recognition of overseas qualifications, English language ability, age and the dominance of Auckland in immigration.
This section contains archived information that has been retained for reference purposes. To view current reports, please go to the Labour Market Information section.
The main terms from the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) that we use in this report and a chart that shows how they relate to each other are provided below.
1 The following hierarchy applies to people classified in more than one ethnic group: Maori, Pacific People, ‘Other’, European (Maori and Pacific counts as Maori, European and Pacific counts as Pacific). The sample size of ‘Pacific Peoples’ in the HLFS is approximately 2,000 people.
2 Pacific people are also over-represented in the Wellington region (14% of all Pacific Peoples, compared to 11% of non-Pacific), particularly Porirua City.
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