Q3 2010 HLFS

The third quarter Household Labour Force Survey is out. The headline is that unemployment is down 0.5% which is good news. But as always, the interesting stuff is beyond the headline.

• 22,000 new jobs seasonally adjusted
• 10,000 of the jobs are FT and 13,000 PT
• 10,000 fewer unemployed
• 5,000 re-enter the labour force
• The number of under 20s in employment continues to decline – has shrunk 15,000 in nine months. This is a result of the stupidity of abolishing the youth minimum wage in 2008. By contrast those aged 20 – 24 have increased by5,000 in the same period.
• Unemployment in Wellington down to 4.8% despite downsizing public service
• Job growth is in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, utilities, retail, transport and ICT. Big drop in construction.
• NZ is ranked 11th out of 33 OECD countries for lowest unemployment rate. The OECD average is 8.5%

So most of the stats are moving the right way, but the under 20s continue to be priced out of employment.