Department of Labour logo for printing

In This Section

Summary Report

Regional Labour Market reports

GISBORNE / HAWKE'S BAY - QUARTERLY REGIONAL LABOUR MARKET UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 2011

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The labour force participation rate in Gisborne / Hawke's Bay stood at 66.9% during the year to September 2011 down from 67.0% the year before. In comparison, the national average participation rate was 68.3% for the year to September 2011.

The unemployment rate in Gisborne / Hawke's Bay fell to 7.4% for the year to September 2011 (national average: 6.6%) from 7.7% in the year to September 2010

There were 3,621 working aged people receiving unemployment benefits from Work and Income in the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region at the end of September 2011.

BACKGROUND

This report includes information relating to the area covered by the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region as described below:

The Gisborne/Hawke's Bay regional council areas have a population of 192,282 and are located to the east of Bay of Plenty and Manawatu-Wanganui. The area has 5 territorial authority areas from north to south: Gisborne with a population of 44,463; Wairoa with a population of 8,481; Napier with a population of 55,359; Hastings with a population of 70,842; and Central Hawke's Bay with a population of 12,957.
Source: Population Census 2006, Statistics New Zealand

This report is a quarterly update of current labour market conditions in the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region.The sources of statistics are the Statistics New Zealand Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). To counter the effects of seasonality and low sample size when making comparisons over time, the figures presented are averages for the year up to the quarter indicated, unless otherwise stated.

Table 1: Key labour market data for the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region
  Gisborne / Hawke's Bay New Zealand
HLFS Indicator year to
September 2010
year to
September 2011
year to
September 2010
year to
September 2011
Participation rate, ann ave 67.0% 66.9% 68.1% 68.3%
Employment rate, ann ave 61.8% 61.9% 63.6% 63.8%
Unemployment rate, ann ave 7.7% 7.4% 6.6% 6.6%

Table 1b: Key labour market data for the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region
Unemployment Beneficiary
Indicator
Gisborne / Hawke's Bay New Zealand
End of
September 2011
End of
September 2011
% change since September
2010
Number Share in NZ
Working aged UB/UBH recipients
(aged 18-64)
3,621 6.5% 55,661 -14.7%
Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand; Ministry of Social Development

In the year to September 2011 the working-age population in the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region was 161,000. The labour force participation rate was 66.9% while 107,600 people were in the labour force and 53,400 people were 'not in the labour force'. Of those people who were in the labour force, 7.4%, or 7,900 were unemployed and 99,700 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 Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region is estimated at 161,000 in the year to September 2011.

LABOUR FORCE

The participation rate in Gisborne / Hawke's Bay stood at 66.9% during the year to September 2011 down from 67.0% the year before. In comparison, the national average participation rate was 68.3% for the year to September 2011.

The number of people in the labour force in the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region is estimated to be 107,600 in the year to September 2011.

Figure 1: Regional and national trends in the participation rate
annual average, % Gisborne / Hawke's Bay New Zealand
Sep 02 65.1 66.6
Sep 03 64.6 66.4
Sep 04 63.9 66.7
Sep 05 67.2 67.7
Sep 06 67.7 68.3
Sep 07 67.7 68.3
Sep 08 68.3 68.3
Sep 09 67.5 68.5
Sep 10 67.0 68.1
Sep 11 66.9 68.3
Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

EMPLOYMENT

The employment rate (the proportion of the working-age population that is employed) in Gisborne / Hawke's Bay stood at 61.9% during the year to September 2011 up from 61.8% the year before. In comparison, the national average employment rate was 63.8%.

Employment in the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region was 99,700 in the year to September 2011.

Figure 2: Regional and national trends in the employment rate
annual average, % Gisborne / Hawke's Bay New Zealand
Sep 02 61.4 63.0
Sep 03 61.1 63.1
Sep 04 60.5 63.8
Sep 05 63.6 65.1
Sep 06 64.8 65.6
Sep 07 64.4 65.8
Sep 08 64.5 65.6
Sep 09 62.2 64.7
Sep 10 61.8 63.6
Sep 11 61.9 63.8
Source: HLFS, Statistics New Zealand

UNEMPLOYMENT

The region's unemployment rate declined to 7.4% in the year to September 2011, from 7.7% the year before.In comparison, the national average unemployment rate was 6.6% for the year to September 2011.

The number of unemployed people in the region (as measured by the official statistics) is estimated at 7,900 for the year to September 2011.

Figure 3: Regional and national trends in the unemployment rate
annual average, % Gisborne / Hawke's Bay New Zealand
Sep 02 5.6 5.4
Sep 03 5.5 4.9
Sep 04 5.4 4.3
Sep 05 5.4 3.8
Sep 06 4.4 3.9
Sep 07 4.8 3.8
Sep 08 5.5 3.9
Sep 09 7.8 5.5
Sep 10 7.7 6.6
Sep 11 7.4 6.6
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 3,621 working aged people receiving unemployment benefits from Work and Income in the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region at the end of September 2011. Their characteristics are shown in the next table.

Table 2: Working aged unemployment benefit recipients (aged 18-64) in the Gisborne / Hawke's Bay region and nationally during September 2011
  Region New Zealand Region's share of New Zealand (%)
Share
(%)
Number Share
(%)
Number
Total   3,621   55,661 6.5
Male
69.4 2,513 70.8 39,421 6.4
Female
30.6 1,108 29.2 16,240 6.8
Maori
62.7 2,272 36.2 20,143 11.3
Pacific People
3.9 141 9.1 5,074 2.8
18-24 years
23.4 848 28.1 15,629 5.4
25-39 years
31.3 1,135 31.3 17,398 6.5
40-54 years
31.8 1,153 28.1 15,668 7.4
55-64 years
13.4 485 12.5 6,966 7.0
Source: Ministry of Social Development

 

Figure 4: Clients receiving Unemployment Benefits for the whole of New Zealand, September 2010 - September 2011
  Maori NZ
European
Pacific
Island
Other
Sep 10 23,163 25,638 6,757 9,723
Dec 10 23,923 26,409 6,568 10,184
Mar 11 21,284 23,634 5,921 9,101
Jun 11 19,409 23,083 5,309 8,463
Sep 11 20,143 22,484 5,074 7,960
Source: MSD

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

Labour Market Reports: the Department of Labour produces a range of reports which focus on labour market statistics and trends in New Zealand.

Contact: The Department of Labour at info@dol.govt.nz

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.