In the year to June 2009 the working-age population in the Bay of Plenty region was 190,300. The labour force participation rate was 64.7% while 123,200 people were in the labour force and 67,100 people were 'not in the labour force'. Of those people who were in the labour force, 5.2%, or 6,400 were unemployed and 116,800 were employed.
Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

Notes:

1. Participation rate: proportion of the working-age population that is in the labour force.
2. Employment rate: proportion of the working-age population that is employed.
3. Unemployment rate: proportion of the labour force that is unemployed.

POPULATION

The working-age population in the Bay of Plenty region is estimated at 190,300 in the year to June 2009.

LABOUR FORCE

The participation rate in Bay of Plenty stood at 64.7% during the year to June 2009 up from 64.1% the year before. In comparison, the national average participation rate was 68.6% for the year to June 2009.

The number of people in the labour force in the Bay of Plenty region is estimated to be 123,200 in the year to June 2009.

Figure 1: Regional and national trends in the participation rate

annual average, %	Bay of Plenty	New Zealand
Jun 00	63.8	65.1
Jun 01	62.1	65.6
Jun 02	63.9	66.4
Jun 03	62.8	66.3
Jun 04	64.4	66.6
Jun 05	64.8	67.4
Jun 06	66.9	68.3
Jun 07	66.8	68.3
Jun 08	64.1	68.2
Jun 09	64.7	68.6

Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

For a more detailed explanation of the labour force and the participation rate, go to the Department of Labour publication: workINSIGHT, issue 5, page 35, The Labour Market Explained: The Labour Force Participation Rate at www.workINSIGHT.govt.nz.

EMPLOYMENT

The employment rate (the proportion of the working-age population that is employed) in Bay of Plenty stood at 61.4% during the year to June 2009 down from 61.5% the year before. In comparison, the national average employment rate was 65.2%.

Employment in the Bay of Plenty region was 116,800 in the year to June 2009.

Figure 2: Regional and national trends in the employment rate

annual average, %	Bay of Plenty	New Zealand
Jun 00	58.3	60.8
Jun 01	57.1	61.8
Jun 02	58.7	62.8
Jun 03	58.2	62.9
Jun 04	60.5	63.6
Jun 05	62.3	64.8
Jun 06	64.0	65.6
Jun 07	64.3	65.7
Jun 08	61.5	65.7
Jun 09	61.4	65.2

Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

For a more detailed explanation of employment, go to the Department of Labour publication: workINSIGHT, issue 4, page 32, The Labour Market Explained: Employment at www.workINSIGHT.govt.nz.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The region's unemployment rate increased to 5.2% in the year to June 2009, from 4.1% the year before.In comparison, the national average unemployment rate was 5.0% for the year to June 2009.

The number of unemployed people in the region (as measured by the official statistics) is estimated at 6,400 for the year to June 2009.

Figure 3: Regional and national trends in the unemployment rate

annual average, %	Bay of Plenty	New Zealand
Jun 00	8.6	6.6
Jun 01	8.0	5.7
Jun 02	8.2	5.4
Jun 03	7.4	5.1
Jun 04	6.0	4.5
Jun 05	4.0	3.9
Jun 06	4.4	3.9
Jun 07	3.7	3.8
Jun 08	4.1	3.8
Jun 09	5.2	5.0

Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

The Household Labour Force Survey provides an estimate of all persons in the working-age population who during a particular week were without a paid job, available for work and had either actively sought work in the previous four weeks, or had a new job to start within four weeks of the survey week. These numbers will not align exactly with numbers receiving an income tested benefit such as Unemployment Benefit (see next page). There are a range of reasons for this. For example, recipients of income tested benefits can be employed part time up to specified income limits, whereas a respondent to the Household Labour Force Survey must have worked less than an hour during the week being surveyed to count as officially unemployed.

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

The Ministry of Social Development has recently begun to make information on numbers receiving social security benefits available for Territorial Local Authorities. This information also supports display by Regional Council area, the same geographic basis on which other information in this report has been displayed. It will be some time yet before this is available as an annual time-series, so comparisons over time are provided for New Zealand as a whole.

There were 2,532 working aged people receiving unemployment benefits from Work and Income in the Bay of Plenty region at the end of June 2009. Their characteristics are shown in the next table.

Table 2: Working aged unemployment benefit recipients (aged 18-64) in the Bay of Plenty region and nationally during June 2009

	Region		New Zealand		Region's share of New Zealand (%)
	Share (%)	Number	Share (%)	Number
Total		2,532		50,855	5.0
Male	71.5	1,810	71.9	36,564	5.0
Female	28.5	721	28.1	14,290	5.0
Maori	56.8	1,438	32.8	16,680	8.6
Pacific People	1.5	37	10.6	5,390	0.7
18-24 years	30.1	762	32.8	16,680	4.6
25-39 years	32.4	820	32.8	16,680	4.9
40-54 years	26.0	658	24.0	12,205	5.4
55-64 years	11.5	291	10.3	5,238	5.6

Source: Ministry of Social Development

These values occur against a backdrop of significant reductions in the number of current unemployment benefits over time at the national level.

Figure 4: Clients receiving Unemployment Benefits for the whole of New Zealand, June 2005 - June 2009

('000)	Maori	NZ European	Pacific Island	Other
June 2005	17,659	21,078	4,022	7,955
June 2006	13,482	16,932	3,175	6,163
June 2007	7,873	9,776	1,753	3,757
June 2008	6,586	6,979	1,401	2,744
June 2009	16,682	20,625	5,392	8,156

Source: MSD

Notes: Other includes not specified. Values for the end of the June quarter.

GLOSSARY

Working-age population: population aged 15 years and over.

Labour force: number of people who are either in work or are available and actively seeking work (that is, employed or unemployed as defined below).

Employment: number of people in work of one hour or more per week.

Unemployment: number of people who are not in work, but who are available for and actively seeking work.

Not in the labour force: number of people who are not in work and are either not available or not actively seeking work (that is, they are not employed and not unemployed). This includes for example, retired people, students and people at home with children.

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

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

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

Highly skilled workers: legislators, administrators and managers, and professionals.

Skilled workers: technicians and associate professionals, and trades workers.

Semi-skilled/elementary: clerks, services/sales workers, plant/machinery workers, and elementary workers.

Annual average: the average for a whole year (eg year to December 2006).

Annual average percentage change: the percentage change between the average for a whole year (eg the year to December 2006) and the previous year (eg the year to December 2005). Unless stated, all growth rates are annual average percentage changes.

LINKS TO OTHER LABOUR MARKET REPORTS

Annual in-depth regional labour market reports: 12 reports that provide a detailed look at the drivers of regional labour market dynamics with sub-regional (Territorial Authority) information included where available. They contain detailed and wide-ranging labour market statistics supplemented by qualitative information from the regions.

Labour market outlook: provides an outlook for the labour market over the next two years. The forecasts are detailed in a table and accompanied by descriptive analysis and a table of comparative forecasts is presented in an Appendix.

Employment and unemployment: a report that summarises results from the latest Household Labour Force Survey released by Statistics New Zealand.

Wage growth: a report that examines the wage growth measures for the latest quarter from the Labour Cost Index (LCI) and Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) released by Statistics New Zealand. A technical note and data tables are included in the appendices.

Skills in the labour market: summarises quarterly information on skill shortages, primarily focused on the Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion (QSBO) from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) and the Job Vacancy Monitor (JVM) from the Department of Labour.

Contact: The Department of Labour Media team (mobile: 027 442 2141)

Disclaimer: The Department of Labour has made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this report is reliable, but makes no guarantee of its accuracy or completeness and does not accept any liability for any errors. The information and opinions contained in this report are not intended to be used as a basis for commercial decisions and the Department accepts no liability for any decisions made in reliance on them. The Department may change, add to, delete from, or otherwise amend the contents of this report at any time without notice. The material contained in this report is subject to Crown copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. The Crown copyright protected material may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not being used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context. Where the material is being published or issued to others, the source and copyright status should be acknowledged. The permission to reproduce Crown copyright protected material does not extend to any material in this report that is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material should be obtained from the copyright holders.