News
Regional employment overview
A brand new report on New Zealand's labour market gives a clear picture on how well the country's 12 regions are performing – and it's looking good
"Unemployment is down and each region has advanced with improvements in labour market participation, growth in high-skilled and skilled occupational groups and more people having higher qualifications," says Social Development and Employment minister David Benson-Pope.
The 12 reports, known as the In-Depth Regional Labour Market Reports, contain one of the first sub-regional presentations of data from the 2006 population census.
"Access to this information will improve knowledge of the regional labour market among strategy and policy makers, labour market participants and others who have an interest or a stake in each region's labour market," says Mr Benson-Pope.
With some of New Zealand's biggest cities located in the region, Auckland has a relatively young, well-qualified population and labour market indicators have improved markedly in the past six years.
Unemployment has declined and employment and labour market participation rates have increased to 68.6 per cent in 2006.
With one of the most buoyant housing markets in New Zealand it is not surprising to find that Auckland's employment growth has been mainly in the property and business services industry, which added more than 23,000 jobs between 2001 and 2006. The retail trade followed with 8,922 new jobs and finance and insurance 7,101 new jobs.
More Aucklanders work in large firms than the rest of New Zealand's residents, with 34 per cent employed by businesses with 100 or more employees, compared with a national average of 29 per cent.
Looking forward, the Auckland region is expected to continue to grow faster than the national average. We expect future employment growth in all industries will be significant in the CBD area, Auckland airport and its surrounding areas, East Tamaki, Albany basin and Onehunga-Panmure.
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30 August 2007