MAori Labour Market Outcomes At a Glance

Published: 25 October 2007

Description

This report on Maori labour market outcomes focuses on changes in the past five years and gives an indication of near term prospects.  This report is produced annually. 

Link to full report

Maori Labour Market Outcomes HTML | PDF [174 KB, 10 pages]

Summary

Achievements:

• The Maori labour force participation rate is higher than ever before recorded, and the Maori unemployment rate has fallen to a record low.
• Disparities between Maori and non-Maori are narrowing across most key labour market indicators.

Labour Market Characteristics:

• The number of Maori employed has grown by 8.7% or 16,400 people in the year to June 2007.  This increase contributed to half of total employment growth over the past year.
• The unemployment rate for Maori has fallen to a new low of 7.6% in the year to June 2007 although it remains well above the economy-wide unemployment rate (3.7%).
• The participation rate for Maori reached an historic high of 67.6%, however it remains below the national annual average participation rate of 68.5%.
• The Maori female participation rate has risen to 61.5% in the past year and has increased at a faster rate than the overall female participation rate.

Challenges:

• While the increased rates of Maori labour force participation are encouraging, they still lag behind participation rates of non-Maori.
• The Maori unemployment rate is still higher than that for non-Maori and further gains could be made in reducing this disparity.
• Ensuring the skills of the large inflow of Maori who are entering employment are better matched to higher skilled and higher wage jobs will continue to improve outcomes.

Moving Forward:

• A wide range of policy initiatives are currently in place or under development that are aimed at increasing the skill levels and further lifting labour market participation of Maori, and to reduce Maori unemployment.  These initiatives include tailoring Industry Training to better meet Maori needs, engagements with Iwi to focus on raising capability, and Realising Youth Potential

Summary of the Maori labour market for the year to June 2007.

Data table for the Summary diagram

Related information

Quick facts about Maori in the labour market

Future updates

This is a regular report – the next update is due in late 2008.  Reports from previous periods can be found in the archive.

Author or contact details

For further information please contact the Labour Market Analysis team