KEY FINDINGS

This paper examines the characteristics, jobs and education and training patterns of adults in employment who have low literacy or numeracy skills. The paper also analyses the prevalence of low literacy and numeracy skills in the workforce by industry and occupation. It uses data from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) Survey 2006, which measured the English-language literacy and numeracy skills of a representative sample of New Zealanders.

The majority of workers with low literacy or numeracy skills have relatively low levels of formal education. English as a second language (ESOL) speakers make up around one-third. Recent immigrants to New Zealand and people with a non-European ethnic affiliation are also over-represented among workers whose literacy or numeracy skills are low.

Workers with low literacy or numeracy skills are substantially less likely than those with higher levels of these skills to carry out tasks requiring reading, writing or the manipulation of numbers in their jobs on a regular basis. Given evidence that literacy and numeracy skills tend to deteriorate with age and/or lack of use, the lack of opportunity for regular use of these skills at work may make it harder for these workers to maintain them.

The industries with the highest proportions of workers with very low literacy or numeracy skills were agriculture, manufacturing, transport, retail trade, and accommodation and food services. The occupational groups with the highest proportions of workers whose foundation skills were low were sales workers, personal service workers, agricultural workers, drivers, machinery operators and assemblers, and the elementary occupations.

Education and training courses undertaken during adulthood have the potential to help maintain or develop literacy and numeracy skills. Internationally, there is a tendency for adults with low foundation skills to do less further education and training than those with higher skills and higher educational attainment. The ALL results for New Zealand indicate that workers aged 25 and over who had low literacy or numeracy skills were as likely (or not much less likely) to participate in programmes of study linked to a qualification, as workers with higher literacy or numeracy. The absence of a stronger literacy skill 'differential' in studying rates in New Zealand suggests that industry training and/or provider-based learning programmes for adults are reaching workers whose foundation skills are weak, and helping to raise their rates of post-school education and training.

In contrast, workers aged 25 and over with low literacy or numeracy skills were significantly less likely to have undertaken a course that was not linked to a qualification. Short training courses provided by employers dominate this category of learning, and therefore the ALL results suggest that less literate or numerate workers are either less likely to be offered, or less likely to take up, shorter training courses that are funded by employers.

Among working adults aged 25 and over with low literacy skills, the likelihood of having studied towards a qualification, controlling for the effects of other characteristics, was significantly higher for men than women, higher for Maori than other ethnic groups, higher for individuals who already held post-school qualifications than those who did not, and higher for workers employed by large enterprises than those employed by small or medium-sized firms. The male/female and Maori/non-Maori differences in rates of studying for a qualification are consistent with the documented patterns of participation in industry training programmes (Tertiary Education Commission, 2007).

Among working adults aged 25 and over with low literacy skills, the likelihood of having taken a course that was not linked to a qualification, after controlling for the effects of other factors, was lower for workers of a Pacific ethnic affiliation that other ethnic groups, and higher for workers employed by large firms.