Published November 2011

This factsheet reports key labour market information for older workers for the year to September 2011.  All data is sourced from the Household Labour Force Survey released quarterly by Statistics New Zealand.  Data is annualised to address sampling error and seasonal variation concerns.^[1]

In the year to September 2011, there were 1,039,800 older people (aged 55 years and over), of whom 45.6% were in the labour force while 54.4% were not in the labour force^[2]. Those employed and unemployed are discussed in further detail below.

Summary of the older people labour market for the year to September 2011

Long description for Older people Labour Market Summary

Labour force participation

The labour force participation rate for older people stood at 45.6% for the year to September 2011, which represents a 1.0 percentage point increase over the past year and a 5.4 percentage point increase over the past five years.  Compared with the participation rate for all people, which was 68.3% in September 2011, the rate for older people is considerably lower.

Labour force participation rates, 2006-2011

Data table for Figure 2

Unemployment

The unemployment rate for older people was 3.0% in the year to September 2011, which was 0.0 percentage points above its level a year ago, and 1.0 percentage points higher than its level five years ago. Compared with the unemployment rate for all people, which was 6.6% in the year to September 2011, the rate for older workers is significantly lower.

Unemployment rates, 2006-2011

Data table for Figure 3

Employment

In the year to September 2011, 459,600 older people were in employment. Over the last five years, the employment rate of older people increased 4.8 percentage points from 39.4% to 44.2%. The rate is below that for the total population, which stood at 63.8% in the year to September 2011.

Employment rates, 2006-2011

Data table for Figure 4

In the year to September 2011, the leading industries in which older people worked were health care & social assistance (62,600 workers) and education & training (49,300 workers).

Employment of older workers by industry

	Sep-11
Industry	(000)
Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing	39.8
Mining, Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Services	6.0
Manufacturing	45.7
Construction	33.7
Wholesale Trade	21.9
Retail Trade	36.4
Accommodation and Food Services	13.0
Transport, Postal and Warehousing	25.1
Information Media & Telecommunications	6.4
Financial & Insurance Services	10.6
Rental, Hiring & Real Estate Services	11.7
Professional, Scientific & Technical Services	30.7
Administrative & Support Services	14.7
Public Administration & Safety	25.7
Education & Training	49.3
Health Care & Social Assistance	62.6
Arts & Recreation Services	5.9
Other Services	19.3
Total Employed (including Not Specified)	459.6

In the year to September 2011, the most common occupational groups for older workers were professionals (107,200 workers) and managers (88,200 workers).

Employment of older workers by occupation

	Sep-11
Occupation	(000)
Managers	88.2
Professionals	107.2
Technicians & trades workers	46.8
Community & personal service workers	37.0
Clerical & administrative workers	55.6
Sales workers	35.9
Machinery operators & drivers	37.2
Labourers	49.9
Total Employed	459.6

Labour market terms explained

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

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

Labour force: The labour force consists of members of the working–age population who are classified as employed or unemployed (people in the labour force).

Labour force participation rate: The proportion of the working–age population who are either employed or unemployed.

Not in the labour force: Any person in the working–age population who is neither employed nor unemployed. This includes, for example, retired people, students and people at home with children.

NEET: This measure refers to youth not engaged in education, employment and training. Youth who are not engaged in these activities are at risk of poor labour market outcomes. In this report, caregiving is deemed to be engagement and so is excluded from the way NEET is measured.

Unemployment: The number of people in the working–age population who are without a paid job, are available for work and have actively sought work in the past four weeks or have a new job to start within the next four weeks.

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

Working–age population: Usually resident population aged 15 years and over.

For more information contact labourmarketanalysis@dol.govt.nz

Next release: 9 February 2012

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1 Data from the Household Labour Force Survey has been annualised by averaging the results from the past four quarters. This may occasionally result in a small rounding error compared to annual results produced directly by Statistics New Zealand.

2 See end of report for definitions of concepts and rates used in this report.