November 2009

This factsheet reports key labour market information for Pacific peoples for the year to September 2009. All data is sourced from the Household Labour Force Survey released by Statistics New Zealand.

Changes in how ethnicity data is collected in the survey mean that figures should not be compared with those previously published in the Labour Market Factsheet series, which were based on total responses.

This factsheet uses single response data, that is, people who defined their ethnicity as ‘Pacific Peoples Only’. Ethnic data is averaged over a year to reduce seasonal variation and sample error.

Summary of the Pacific Peoples labour market for the year to September 2009

Long description for Pacific Peoples Labour Market Summary

Participation

The participation rate for Pacific Peoples Only stood at 60.8% for the year to September 2009. This is lower than the 62.4% figure for the year to September 2008. The Pacific participation rate is below the national annual average participation rate of 68.5%.

Employment

In the year to September 2009, 77,300 Pacific Peoples were in employment, which represented 88.4% of the Pacific Peoples’ labour force. This is lower than the 78,900 in employment for the year to September 2008.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate for Pacific Peoples Only was 11.6% in the year to September 2009, which is considerably higher than the 7.1% figure for the year to September 2008. It is also well above the current annual average rate for all persons (5.5%).