Published: 4 February 2010

Description:The Joint MSD/DoL Quarterly Regional Labour Market Reports provide regularly updated labour market information at a Regional Council level.  Published following the release of the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), these reports provide timely and accurate labour market information at a regional level.

Full reports: The 12 Joint MSD/DoL Quarterly Regional Labour Market Reports can be viewed in HTML or PDF format below:

• Northland HTML | PDF 512 KB
• Auckland HTML | PDF 515 KB
• Waikato HTML | PDF 525 KB
• Bay of Plenty HTML | PDF 515 KB
• Gisborne/ Hawke's Bay HTML | PDF 516 KB
• Taranaki HTML | PDF 509 KB
• Manawatu/ Wanganui HTML | PDF 518 KB
• Wellington HTML | PDF 515 KB
• Tasman/ Nelson/ Marlborough/ West Coast HTML | PDF 515 KB
• Canterbury HTML | PDF 522 KB
• Otago HTML | PDF 513 KB
• Southland HTML | PDF 511 KB

Summary

The regional reports convey key labour market information for twelve regions of New Zealand.  They include annual trends in unemployment rates, labour force participation rates, and employment rates from Statistics New Zealand’s Household Labour Force Survey, along with benefit figures from the Ministry of Social Development’s beneficiary records.

Key messages to emerge from the December 2009 quarter HLFS release are:

• The unemployment rate for all 12 regions was 6.1% for the year ended December 2009, up from 4.2% for the year ended December 2008.  The rate was highest in Northland, which had an 8.9% unemployment rate for the year ended December 2009, followed by Gisborne/Hawke's Bay (8.3%), and Auckland (6.9%).  Southland posted the lowest unemployment rate for the period, at 3.5%.  The annual average rate of unemployment rose in all of the country’s 12 regions.
• The participation rate for all regions for the year ended December 2009 rose slightly to 68.2%, slightly down from its recent highs; however, it has remained above 68% for four years.  Regionally, the labour force participation rate fell in five of the 12 regional council areas between the years ended December 2008 and December 2009.  The rate grew the most in Manawatu-Wanganui (from 65.0% to 66.4%) and Southland (from 71.7% to 73.0%).  Drops in the participation rate were most significant in the Tasman/Nelson/Marlborough/West Coast region (from 68.6% in December 2008 to 67.4% in December 2009) and the Auckland region (from 68.9% to 67.9%).
• For all regions, employment fell 1.1% in the year ending December 2009, the biggest drop in more than 17 years.  Employment fell on an annual basis for seven out of 12 regions, with the trend heading downwards for 10 regions.  The strongest employment growth was posted in Otago (up 7.1%), followed by the Manawatu-Wanganui and Wellington regions (2.2% and 1.1% growth, respectively).  The largest declines were in Taranaki (down 3.4%) and Auckland (down 2.9%). 
• The annual average employment rate nationally fell from 65.6% for the year ended December 2008 to 64.1% for the year ended December 2009.  Annual average employment rates rose in only two of the 12 regions compared with the year before — Manawatu-Wanganui (up 0.3 percentage points) and Southland (up 0.5 points).  The employment rate in the remaining 10 regions declined, with the largest drops being in Auckland (down 2.5 points) and Waikato (down 2.0 points). 

Related information

Related links:
Underlying information in the Joint MSD/DoL Quarterly Regional Labour Market Reports was sourced from:

• Ministry of Social Development [external link]
• Statistics New Zealand [external link]

An in-depth analysis of regional labour markets in the Annual In Depth Regional Reports

Further context and interpretation of labour market data can be found in Labour Market Reports.

Future updates:

This is a regular quarterly report – the next update is due in August 2009. Reports from previous periods can be found in the archive.

Author/Contact details:

For further information please contact the Labour Market Analysis team