Published: 6 May 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 on twelve regions of New Zealand. They include annual trends in labour force participation rates, employment rates and unemployment rates from Statistics New Zealand’s Household Labour Force Survey and benefit figures from the Ministry of Social Development’s beneficiary records.

Key messages to emerge from the March 2010 quarter HLFS release are:

• On an annualised basis, the labour force participation rate for the year ending March 2010 stood at 68.2%, down from the record high of 68.6% for the year ending March 2010.
• Regionally, the labour force participation rate fell in seven of the 12 regional council areas between the year ended March 2009 and March 2010. The rate grew the most in the Taranaki region (from 67.2% for the year ending March 2009 to 68.2% for the year March 2010), and the Bay of Plenty region (from 64.5% to 65.3%). Drops in the participation rate were most significant in the Tasman/Nelson-Marlborough/West Coast regions (down 1.7 percentage points from 68.8% to 67.1%), and the Waikato region (down from 70.1% to 68.6%).
• For all regions, employment fell by 1.4% for the year ending March 2010. Otago posted especially strong growth for the year, growing by 7.1% from the previous year. The only other region to see employment grow over the year was Bay of Plenty, which saw 0.7% growth for the year ending March 2010. The largest drops in employment were in Waikato, where employment fell by 4.5% for the year ending March 2010, and Southland, where it fell by 4.2%.
• The annual average employment rate nationally decreased from 65.5% in the year ended March 2009 to 63.9% in the year ended March 2010. Annual average employment rates fell for all of the 12 regions compared with the year before, although the fall in Taranaki was small – only 0.1 percentage points down from the year ended March 2009 to 65.0% for the year ending March 2010. The largest falls were in Waikato (down 2.5 points to 64.3% for the year ending March 2010), Auckland (down 2.3 points to 63.0%), Tasman/Nelson-Marlborough/West Coast (down 2.1 points to 64.5%), and Northland (down 2.0 points to 57.2%).
• The highest employment rate for the year ended March 2010 was in Southland (69.7%), followed by Wellington (66.9%) and Canterbury (65.8%).
• The unemployment rate was highest in Northland, which saw a 9.0% unemployment rate for the year ended March 2010, and Gisborne/Hawke's Bay (8.6%). Auckland and Bay of Plenty had an unemployment rate of 7.1% for the year ended March 2010. The lowest unemployment rates were in Southland (3.8% for the year ended March 2010), Tasman/Nelson-Marlborough/West Coast (3.9%), and Taranaki (4.7%).
• The annual average unemployment rate rose in all of the country’s 12 regions, with the South Island registering a lower rise (1.5 percentage points) compared with the North Island (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 2010. Reports from previous periods can be found in the archive.

Author/Contact details:

For further information please contact the Labour Market Analysis team