APPENDIX I: LABOUR MARKET TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

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.

Working-age population: the number of usually resident non-institutionalised civilians aged 15 years and over. All labour market figures relate to those aged 15 years and over.

Employment: the number of people in the working-age population who work one hour or more per week.

Full-time/part-time employment: full-time workers usually work 30 hours or more per week and part-time workers usually work less than 30 hours per week.

Unemployment: the number of people in the working-age population who are not in work, but who are available for and actively seeking work.

Labour force: the number of people in the working-age population who are either in work or are available and actively seeking work (that is, employed or unemployed as defined above).

Not in the labour force: the number of people in the working-age population who are not in work and are either not available or not actively seeking work (ie they are not employed and not unemployed). For example, people who are retired, studying, or at home looking after children.

Labour force participation rate: proportion of the working-age population in the labour force.

Unemployment rate: the proportion of the labour force that is unemployed.

Employment rate: the proportion of the working-age population that is employed.

Ethnicity: ethnicity is self-perceived and people can belong to more than one ethnic group. In the HLFS, people with multiple responses to the ethnicity question are assigned to one ethnic group using this prioritisation: Maori; Pacific peoples; Other ethnic groups; European.