Unemployment statistics

Transcription

1 Unemployment statistics 2001/14 26 November 2001 Executive summary The unemployment rate is a key economic indicator, but its definition and measurement is contentious. Of the three main measures of unemployment in New Zealand, only the official unemployment rate estimated by Statistics New Zealand s Household Labour Force Survey is suitable for making international comparisons and analysing trends over time. A person is officially unemployed if, during the week they are surveyed, they did not have a paid job, were available for work, had been actively looking for work in the previous four weeks, or had a new job to start within four weeks. Registered unemployed are people registered as job seekers at Work and Income New Zealand offices. The levels of registered and official unemployment diverged from late-1998 as a result mainly of administrative changes, arising out of the establishment of WINZ, raising registered unemployment numbers. Official unemployment has generally trended downward since mid-2000; by June quarter 2001 the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate totalled 5.2% of the labour force, down from 6.1% in the previous year. New Zealand s average unemployment rate for the 2001 March year was, at 5.8%, below the OECD average of 6.3%. The jobless is a much broader measure than official unemployment, but it includes people who are not considered close to entering the labour force. Statistics indicate around two-thirds of discouraged workers have not worked in less than two years. Underemployed workers in New Zealand comprise around 5.5% of the labour force, and around two-thirds of them are female.

2 Introduction The unemployment rate is one of the most widely cited and closely monitored economic indicators. It also tends to be one of the most politically charged indicators, used often as a barometer of government performance and a signal of the general health of the economy. As the Royal Statistical Society commented, in a review conducted in the mid 1990s on the measurement of unemployment in Britain, the unemployment rate: serves as a general-purpose measure of some aspect of the performance of Government, to which the electorate are entitled in order to inform their voting decisions. 1 Despite the prominence of the unemployment rate in political and economic analysis, its actual definition and measurement is contentious. The aim of this paper is to examine how unemployment is measured in New Zealand. Section one will outline the main measures of unemployment used in New Zealand. An assessment of the validity of each measure will be undertaken with an appraisal of its coverage and accuracy. Section two will then provide a closer examination of the official unemployment rate, including an overview of what has driven recent changes in the unemployment level. Section three will investigate one of the commonly cited contentions with the official unemployment rate: that it possibly understates the unemployment level. This will involve analysis of supplementary measures to the unemployment rate, including the jobless and the underemployed. 1. Measurement of unemployment in New Zealand. There are three main sources and indicators of unemployment statistics in New Zealand. These are: 1. Census night unemployment, undertaken by Statistics New Zealand every five years. 2. Official unemployment (the Household Labour Force Survey), conducted quarterly by Statistics New Zealand. 3. Registered unemployment, compiled monthly by Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ). 2 Census All of these measures of unemployment have their advantages and disadvantages. One of the most obvious shortcomings of the Census-based data is it is obtained only once every five years. This inhibits its use as an economic indicator of short-term trends. For historical analysis of long-term trends in labour market, however, the census data is more useful. Time-series analysis can be performed using censuses dating back to the 19 th century (although variations in data-collection methods over time can create some consistency problems). The census measure also provides the advantage of enabling a detailed snapshot to be undertaken of employment and unemployment levels, down to neighbourhood block level, that existed on census night. 1 Lies, damn lies and all those jobless figures, in The Times, 5 April WINZ also produces statistics in a fortnightly release, but with less detail compared with the monthly statistics. 2

3 Official unemployment The Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), is conducted by Statistics New Zealand and released quarterly. Around 16,000 private households are sampled on a statistically representative basis from rural and urban areas throughout New Zealand. 3 The target population, which the survey aims to sample, is New Zealand s usually resident non-institutionalised civilian population aged 15 years and over. A range of people are excluded from the survey, including: permanent members of the armed forces, inmates of prisons, long-term residents of hospitals, psychiatric institutions and retirement homes, and overseas visitors. 4 People not living in private households (e.g. living in a hostel or boarding house) are also not surveyed. The unemployment definition used by the survey is based on standards set by the International Labour Office (ILO) and is very specific. A surveyed person is deemed to be unemployed if during the reference week of the survey they did not have a paid job, were available for work, had been actively seeking work over the past four weeks, or had a new job to start within four weeks. The unemployment rate estimated by the HLFS is regarded as New Zealand s official unemployment rate. This reflects its use of the ILO standards. These enable a degree of consistency for analysing changes over time, as well as the ability to make comparisons with other countries using the same standards. 5 The official unemployment rate is not without its shortcomings. The survey series only started in 1985, with the fourth quarter of that year the earliest data available from Statistics New Zealand. 6 This limits the usefulness of the statistics for identifying long-term historical trends. Another weakness is that the sample size prevents analysis of labour market trends and developments at a detailed regional level. Estimates of the population of less than 1,000 are not released by Statistics New Zealand because of the high level of sampling error. Estimates of unemployment can generate a sampling error of nearly 50% when the size of the survey estimates reaches 1,000 or less. Importantly, this prevents, for example, the official unemployment rate being established by the survey for small cities or even some less-populated regions such as the West Coast of the South Island. Issues relating to the ILO-based definition of unemployment (and employment) and who it includes or excludes from coverage are also controversial. These are discussed in more detail in section three below. Registered unemployment Registered unemployment refers to the number of people registered as job seekers at Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) offices. A related measure sometimes referred to is the number of people receiving the unemployment benefit. 7 Registered unemployment contains both those people who are obligated by the government to register as job seekers in order to receive income support and those who are seeking WINZ assistance to find work. As at 31 March 2001, 83% of the registered job seekers were in the first category. 8 Registered unemployment has some advantages (compared to official unemployment) as a statistical indicator. Coverage is more regular and timely since statistics are collected on a monthly basis. In contrast to the household labour force survey, the numbers are actual rather than a surveyed sample. 3 Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey Technical Notes. 4 Ibid. 5 The last review of ILO standards for labour market statistics was undertaken in 1998 and involved representatives from ninety countries (ILO Key Indicators of the Labour Market 1999, p.7.) 6 NZIER has however produced estimates of the main labour market indicators, including unemployment, back to These are included in the Data Series: Household Labour Force Survey maintained by the Parliamentary Library and available on the intranet. 7 The technical name for the unemployment benefit used by WINZ up until July 2001 was the community wage job seekers. It is now called simply the unemployment benefit. 8 Work and Income NZ Quarterly Profile, March 2001, p.10. 3

4 Short of some unexpected administrative error, all registered job seekers are included. This also means that a detailed breakdown of the registered unemployed can be given at sub-regional levels. However, the registration of unemployed is, first and foremost, a necessary administrative process needed by the government to track its expenditure. It is therefore susceptible to changes in the welfare system or administrative procedures/definitions that limit the validity of comparing changes in registered unemployment over time. Widely diverging unemployment benefit systems used by different countries also mean registered unemployment cannot reliably be used to make international comparisons. A summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the three main measures of unemployment in New Zealand is provided in Table 1. Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages of unemployment measures Census Official (HLFS) Registered Consistent over time? a Backseries available from 1890s s Produced frequently (quarterly or less) Suitable for international comparisons? Detailed analysis possible at: Regional level? Main urban areas level? Area unit (ie suburb) level? b Meshblock (ie neigbourhood block) a Census data is consistent since 1986 but some inconsistency arises with earlier data due to changes in the way has been collected since the 1890s. Censuses were not conducted in 1931 and 1941 due to the Great Depression and World War Two respectively. b Registered unemployment uses non-standard boundaries devised for administrative purposes. Official and registered unemployment compared Figure 1 below compares the level of unemployment as measured by the official unemployment measure against registered unemployment between mid 1995 and mid Tracking of changes in numbers of people receiving the unemployment benefit (community wage) is also shown. Figure 1: Measures of unemployment, ('000) Of f icial unemployment Regist ered jobseekers (quart erly averages) Unemployment benef it recipient s (as at end of quart er) Sep-95 Mar-96 Sep-96 Mar-97 Sep-97 Mar-98 Sep-98 Mar-99 Sep-99 Mar-00 Sep-00 Mar-01 Source: Work and Income NZ, Quarterly Profile; Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey. 4

5 Evident in Figure 1 is the fact that registered unemployment has consistently been higher than the official unemployment level surveyed by the household labour force survey. Additionally, after late 1998 there was significant divergence in the two measures, with registered job seekers rising rapidly up until early 2000, while official unemployment actually fell over the same period. This reflects the difference in criteria as to which people are included in each measure. In particular, the higher level of registered unemployment over time is due to the inclusion of groups such as part-time workers and individuals who are unavailable for work. 9 Comparing official unemployment to the narrower indicator of number of unemployment benefit recipients, as shown in Figure 2, reveals much less divergence in unemployment numbers between official and registered figures. Figure 2: Indexes of unemployment, 1995 to Unemployed index, Sep 1995=100 Registered jobseekers index, Sep 1995= Format ion of Work and Income NZ, October Sep-95 Mar-96 Sep-96 Mar-97 Sep-97 Mar-98 Sep-98 Mar-99 Sep-99 Mar-00 Sep-00 Mar-01 Source: Work and Income NZ, Quarterly Profile; Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey. The substantial divergence between the levels of unemployment shown by the official and registered unemployment since late 1998 is highlighted in Figure 2. This chart presents both data series as index numbers, with September quarter 1995 = 100 the base period. (Using index numbers avoids the distortion of actual values in order to make trend movements easier to observe.) Between the September quarter of 1998 and the March quarter of 2000 official unemployment fell by 13.0%. Over the same period the number of registered job seekers rose by 24.1%. This anomaly is explained by major administrative changes introduced from late Work and Income NZ was established in October 1998 through the merger of the New Zealand Employment Service, the Income Support group of the Department of Social Welfare and the Department of Labour s Community Employment group. 10 This major amalgamation of employment and social welfare services boosted the level of registered unemployment in several direct ways. First, it made it easier for non work tested beneficiaries to register. 11 Second, new offices for registering job seekers were established out of the merger, along with a change in the catchment areas of existing offices In the HLFS these people are considered outside the labour force rather than unemployed. 10 WINZ Quarterly Customer Profile, December Quarter 1998, p Carroll, p WINZ Quarterly Customer Profile, various. 5

6 Finally, and most significantly, the community wage (job seeker) scheme was introduced in late 1998, with a substantial expansion of the work testing programme. Additional groups of beneficiaries not necessarily actively looking for work were therefore required to register as job seekers. Spouses of beneficiaries began to be work tested from late 1998 and work testing of people receiving the domestic purposes benefit was phased in over Since early 2000, changes in client management processes used by WINZ have since removed a large number of people not on work tested benefits and not in need of employment services off the register. 13 Consequently, the official and registered unemployment indicators are gradually converging again and displaying similar trends over time. Between March 2000 and March 2001, for example, official unemployment fell by 14.2%, while registered unemployment reduced by 13.5% over the same period. 2. A closer examination of official unemployment Movements in the level of official unemployment reflect the difference between growth in the labour force and the change in employment. Although often interpreted in vague terms, the labour force is actual a tightly defined group of people. According to the household labour force survey, the labour force is comprised of individuals of the working age population (i.e. 15 years and over) who in the reference week of the survey were either employed or unemployed. Changes in the size of the labour force therefore depend on the rate of growth of the working age population and the proportion of that group who want to work and actively seek, or have, a job. The faster the labour force grows, the faster employment must grow simply to keep unemployment steady. Table 2: Summary of labour market statistics, June 2000 to June 2001 (not seasonally-adjusted; 000 except where noted) Jun 2000 Sep 2000 Dec 2000 Mar 2001 Jun 2001 % change Jun 2000 to Jun 2001 Labour force 1,868 1,886 1,924 1,915 1, of which: Employed 1,753 1,779 1,818 1,806 1, Unemployed Unemployment rate (%) Working age population 2,893 2,896 2,904 2,909 2, Labour force participation rate (%) a a Proportion of working age population classified in labour force. These general concepts are illustrated in Table 2, which summarises key labour market indicators for the year to the June quarter Over this period, the unemployment rate generally trended downward, falling from 6.1% in the June quarter of 2000 to 5.3% in June quarter Over the same period, the labour force grew by 2.2%, thereby exceeding growth of 0.7% in the working age population. Therefore, the main driver of growth of the labour force was a greater proportion of people participating in the labour force. This is shown by the labour force participation rate, which measures the size of the labour force 13 WINZ Quarterly Profile, March 2001, p These rates refer to unadjusted unemployment. Seasonally-adjusted unemployment was marginally lower, at 5.2%, in the June quarter of

7 as a proportion of the working age population. This increased from 64.6% in the June quarter of 2000 to 65.6% in the June quarter of Since employment growth of 3.2% between June 2000 and June 2001 exceeded overall labour force growth, unemployment fell. Table 3: Labour market statistics, annual averages 1997 to 2001 (June years, 000 except where noted) Labour force 1,854 1,863 1,869 1,881 1,909 of which: Employed 1,737 1,731 1,733 1,761 1,803 Unemployed Unemployment rate (%) Working age population 2,817 2,848 2,868 2,886 2,905 Labour force participation rate (%) For the purpose of providing a more useful time-series, Table 3 replicates the information given in Table 2, but uses annual averages for the past five years. This gives a more varied picture of the changes in the labour force. Although unemployment in the year to June 2001 was lower than its level five years earlier, the intervening years saw the annual average unemployment rate rise above 7% before easing back over the past couple of years. Unemployment and the business cycle The main explanation for the rise and fall in official unemployment over the past few years is the close relationship between shifts in labour market conditions and economic growth. In general, strong economic growth is accompanied by a reduction in the unemployment rate, while low output growth is typically accompanied by a rise in unemployment. The relationship between changes in economic output (measured by real GDP growth) and changes in labour force conditions is even more apparent when changes in employment growth and economic output are compared, as Figure 3 below demonstrates. Figure 3: Real GDP growth and employment growth, 1990 to % Dec-90 Sep-91 Jun-92 Mar-93 Dec-93 Sep-94 Jun-95 Mar-96 Dec-96 Sep-97 Jun-98 Mar-99 Dec-99 Sep-00 Real GDP growth, year-on-year Total employed (year-on-year % change) 7

8 International comparison of official unemployment Comparison of New Zealand s official unemployment rate with other countries is possible using the OECD s standardised rates. The OECD adjusts national unemployment estimates to ensure they follow the current ILO definitions. Table 4 provides a five-year time series of standardised unemployment rates in selected countries and regions. Table 4: Standardised unemployment rates, selected countries (March years, %) Ireland United States Japan United Kingdom New Zealand Australia EU average OECD Average Source: OECD, Quarterly Labour Force Statistics, No.2 (July) Between 1999 and early 2001 there was a steady improvement in labour market conditions in both New Zealand and among our key trading partners, with the notable exception of Japan. Additionally, New Zealand has consistently had a lower unemployment rate than Australia and the OECD average since the mid 1990s. According to the latest available statistics, New Zealand s standardised unemployment rate was 5.2% of the labour force in the June quarter of In Australia, the unemployment rate for the same period was 6.9%, while the OECD average was 6.3% Supplementary measures to official unemployment In a recent article reporting on the release of the June quarter 2001 household labour force survey, the business reporter of a large metropolitan newspaper compared the official unemployment rates of New Zealand and several other OECD countries. However, the unemployment rates were referred to as jobless rates. This was technically incorrect, but is an example of a common confusion over what the unemployment rate is and what it measures. The jobless The jobless contains both the unemployed and people outside the labour force who want a job, but are not actively seeking work. It therefore returns a consistently higher level than official unemployment. Figure 4 provides a breakdown of the working age population according to employment status. This illustrates the differentiation between the unemployed and the jobless more clearly. 15 OECD, 8

9 Figure 4: Breakdown of New Zealand Working Age Population according to Employment Status Annual average for year ended 30 June 2001 ( 000 unless noted). Working age population Labour force Not in labour force 1,908.7 (65.7%) (34.3%) The jobless Employed Unemployed Wants a job Does not want job 1,803.1 (94.5%) (5.5%) 71.7 (7.2%) (92.8%) Full-time 1,387.8 (77.0%) Part-time (23.0%) Looking for full-time job 73.5 (69.6%) Looking for part-time work 32.1 (30.4%) Available for work, but not actively looking 55.1 (76.8%) Actively looking but not available for work 16.6 (23.2%) Does not want to work full-time Prefer to work more hours Looking for full-time work 22.0 Newspaper searching only 12.1 (22.0%) Discouraged 8.2 (14.9%) Other 34.8 (63.2%) The visible underemployed Notes: Percentages shown are proportions of the total for the group given in the next highest level in the diagram. The categories for the visible underemployed are not mutually exclusive since people seeking to work more hours may also be wanting full-time work. Therefore, the figure for part-time workers wanting to work full-time is approximate only. 9

10 In the year to the June quarter 2001 there were, on average, 177,300 people classified as jobless in New Zealand. Around 60% of the jobless were officially unemployed, leaving the remaining 40% classified as people who were outside the labour force, without a job and wanting a job. These proportions have been relatively stable over the past decade, with official unemployment averaging around 63% of total jobless between late 1989 and mid 2001 (see Figure 5). Figure 5: The jobless, 1989 to ('000) Available but not actively seeking work Actively seeking but unavailable for work Unemployed (not seasonally adjusted) 0 Dec-89 Dec-90 Dec-91 Dec-92 Dec-93 Dec-94 Dec-95 Dec-96 Dec-97 Dec-98 Dec-99 Dec-00 The jobless is clearly a much broader measure than the official unemployment rate. This sometimes results in claims the official rate understates the true unemployment situation and should be supplemented with other groups of the jobless. Interestingly, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve (central bank), Alan Greenspan, has referred in the past to the pool of available workers instead of the unemployed. 16 Adding the rest of the jobless to the unemployed creates a measure too broad to be useful as a general economic indicator. The argument for including them usually rests with the idea that they are marginally attached to the labour force and therefore might join the labour force if conditions were more favourable. Table 5: Components of the jobless, Annual averages, year ended 30 June ('000) Unemployed Actively seeking but unavailable for work Available for work, but not actively looking of which: Newspaper searching only Discouraged Other Total jobless See, for example, his speech Technology and the economy, 13 th January 2000, 10

11 A breakdown of the jobless, excluding the officially unemployed, (see Figure 4 and Table 5) reveals the majority of people who say they are jobless and available for work but not actively looking are vaguely classified as other. In the June quarter 2001, 36,400 were classified in this other category, equivalent to just over half (50.9%) of the total jobless, excluding the unemployed. They included around 10,000 people attending education institutions, 11,700 people who had no specified reason for wanting work and were not looking, and an estimated 2,400 who curiously did not have any reason to work, but nevertheless were available and wanting a job. These reasons suggest there is an amount of leakage from people who are not economically active (such as the retired or students) but are classified as jobless because when surveyed they state they want a job. Detailed investigation into this substantial other group would be a useful addition to currently available labour market research. Discouraged workers Discouraged workers are people not actively seeking work because they believe they lack skills, are the wrong age, or feel the right sort of work for them is unavailable in their geographic area. 17 Among the jobless, the discouraged are the most common group targeted for possible inclusion in the unemployed. The rationale behind this is that they are supposedly close to (re)entering the labour force. When unemployment is high, the assumption follows that some of those without work give up trying after a while and are no longer classified as unemployed. This cyclical relation does appear to exist, with the discouraged rate closely tracking shifts in the unemployment rate, as shown in Figure 6. Additionally, Figure 6 shows a reasonably clear relationship that the index of discouraged workers tends to be greater than the unemployment index when unemployment is high, and less than the unemployment index when unemployment is low. Figure 6: Indexes of Unemployed and Discouraged workers compared, Dec-89 Dec-90 Dec-91 Dec-92 Dec-93 Dec-94 Dec-95 Dec-96 Dec-97 Dec-98 Dec-99 Dec-00 Unemployed Dec Qtr 1989 =100 Discouraged workers, Dec 1989 Qtr = 100 However, a study undertaken by the OECD in the mid 1990s has cast some doubt on the conclusion all discouraged workers are close to the labour 17 Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey. 11

12 force. 18 The OECD found for most countries studied, including New Zealand, that many discouraged workers had not worked for three years or more. This indicates they either come from the long-term unemployed, or have been nonparticipants in the labour force for a long time. For New Zealand, the OECD found over 40% of discouraged workers had not worked in three years or more, while up to an additional 28% had never worked before. 19 More recent statistics reveal a similar situation: for the June quarter of 2001, nearly two-thirds (65.6%) of discouraged workers were estimated by Statistics New Zealand to have not worked in two years or more. 20 This research suggests the discouraged may actually be made up of two broad groups: those responsive to changes in employment opportunities in the economy and those unresponsive to changes. Overall, discouraged workers make up a small proportion of the total jobless in New Zealand. In the year to 30 June 2001, there were on average 8,200 discouraged workers, or 4.6% of the total jobless. If the discouraged workers were added to the labour force, their proportion would total only 0.4% of the labour force for the year to 30 June The Underemployed The underemployed is arguably another manifestation of slack in the labour market. There is some variation among different countries as to the definition of underemployed, but Statistics New Zealand regards them as part-time workers (i.e. working 30 hours or less a week) who would prefer to work more hours. Unlike discouraged workers, the underemployed are part of the labour force. Since persons fitting into this category can relatively easily be measured, they are considered to be the visible underemployed. However, there is also another type of underemployment, the invisible underemployed, that cannot be easily measured. The invisible underemployed refers to workers in jobs that do not adequately utilise their skills or training. For example, a scientist forced by circumstances to drive a taxi for a job is considered to be invisibly underemployed. The underemployed is a substantial group of people in New Zealand according to Statistics New Zealand estimates. 21 In the year to 30 June 2001, there were on average 104,900 part-time workers wanting to work more hours. Of these workers, some of them made up an average 22,000 part time workers over the year wanting a full-time job. 22 As a proportion of the labour force, the visible underemployment rate for the year to June 2001 averaged 5.5%, the same level as the annual average official unemployment rate (see Figure 7). In the same study into discouraged workers, the OECD also examined underemployment in member countries. 23 The OECD concluded that, to a greater degree than discouraged workers, the underemployed were a manifestation of labour market slack. 24 This is due to their relation to cyclical movements in the economy and close tracking to movements in the unemployment rate. There is a very strong correlation between changes in the underemployment and unemployment rates in New Zealand. 18 Supplementary measures of labour market slack, an analysis of discouraged workers and involuntary part-time workers, in OECD Employment Outlook, July The data analysed by the OECD was from 1983 and 1993, with a similar pattern apparent between each period. 20 Statistics New Zealand, customer service. 21 Discussion from here onwards refers to the visible underemployed only. 22 These two groups are not mutually exclusive, refer to the notes for Figure Supplementary measures of labour market slack, an analysis of discouraged workers and involuntary part-time workers, in OECD Employment Outlook, July Ibid, page

13 Figure 7: The unemployment and underemployment rates compared: % Dec-89 Dec-90 Dec-91 Dec-92 Dec-93 Dec-94 Dec-95 Dec-96 Dec-97 Dec-98 Dec-99 Dec-00 Unemployment rate (not seasonally adjusted) Underemployment rate The economic reasoning behind this is straightforward: in an economic downturn firms are generally more likely to reduce hours for workers than lay them off. Similarly, in times of an economic upturn, as well as firms taking on more workers, they will seek to offer more of their part-time workers longer hours. The OECD study also found that less than 50% of the underemployed in most countries had actually looked for full-time work (or sought out longer hours). Another strong pattern among OECD countries is the dominance of females among the underemployed. In New Zealand, females accounted for 67.4% of the underemployed in the year to 30 June Adjusting the official unemployment rate In January 2001, the chief statistician at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Dennis Trewin, stated he felt the official unemployment rate did not realistically reflect the true jobless rate. 25 Mr Trewin s main criticism of existing international standards are in how they define the employed. Under the ILO definition (used by the household labour force survey), a working age person is considered employed if they worked for one hour or more in the survey week. This, Mr Trewin argues, understates unemployment levels because, in general, a person cannot realistically live on the earnings of just one hour a week. He has recommended a revision of the international standards, possibly raising the employment definition to cover those people who work 10 hours or more a week. Table 6 below provides calculations of an adjusted unemployment rate for New Zealand, if people stating they worked for less than 10 hours are instead classified as unemployed. Including people working less than ten hours a week generally doubles the unemployment rate. But it arguably overestimates the unemployed since a person is defined as unemployed if actively seeking and available for work. A significant number of those people working less than 10 hours a week may not be available to work more hours (or wish to). A further issue concerns the growth of multiple job holding by part-time workers over the 1990s. Morrison (2001, p.89) notes that the proportion of employed women holding multiple jobs increased from 15.3% in 1990 to 28.2% by For employed men, the growth of multiple job holding nearly doubled over the 1990s, from 5.5% in 1990 to 10.6% in This implies it is increasingly more important to distinguish between hours worked in a main job and total hours worked in all jobs held. 25 Jobless yardstick wrong: statistician, in The Age, 22 January

14 Table 6: Adjusted unemployment, Annual averages for year ending 30 June ('000 unless noted) Labour force 1,854 1,863 1,869 1,881 1,909 Employed, all hours & not specified 1,737 1,731 1,733 1,761 1,803 Employed, 1-9 hours worked Employed, worked 10 hours or more a 1,626 1,622 1,620 1,652 1,697 Unemployed (official measure) Unemployment rate (official measure, %) Unemployed (adjusted to include 1-9 hours worked) Adjusted unemployment rate (%) a People who worked 0 hours are included because they were on leave at time of being surveyed. Source: Statistics New Zealand, Infos database. Useful links Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey Hot Off the Press, Click on: then scroll down to select the most recent detailed commentary and data. The Parliamentary Library maintains a Labour & Employment Subject Portal on the Parliamentary Service Intranet. This provides easy access to a range of websites covering labour and employment issues. This can be accessed at: The Parliamentary Library also produces a quarterly statistical bulletin and data series on the Household Labour Force Survey. These can be located on the Parliamentary Service Intranet at the following locations: Household Labour Force Survey Bulletin Household Labour Force Survey Data Series 14

15 Selected references Carroll, N 2000, Labour Market Trends and Outlook, Labour Market Bulletin, 1999, Department of Labour, pp The Economist 1995, Counting the jobless, measuring unemployment is not as simple as it sounds, The Economist, 22 July, p. 80. Morrison, P.S 2001, Employment, Asia Pacific Viewpoint (Special Issue: New Zealand in the 1990s), Vol 42, No 1, April, pp OECD 1995, Supplementary measures of labour market slack, an analysis of discouraged workers and involuntary part-time workers, Employment Outlook, July 1995, pp Work and Income NZ, Quarterly Profile. Antony Flux, Research Analyst (Economics) Research and Analysis Branch Parliamentary Library For more information contact Antony, ext.9202 Copyright NZ Parliamentary Library Except for educational purposes permitted under the Copyright Act 1994, no part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including information storage and retrieval systems, other than by Members of Parliament in the course of their official duties, without the consent of the Parliamentary Librarian, Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. 15