EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

The Household Labour Force Survey

Is based on a survey of 15000 private households each quater (every 3 months).
This amounts to 30 000 respondents. It meets the internationally accepted standard for measuring unemployment
and it is the official measure, however the survey only began in 1985 and so has a limited history of data.

The HLFS measure includes:

  • Defines labour force as all those who work for 1 hour or more a week for pay or profit.
  • all people who say they are out of work
  • and are �actively� seeking it . Have looked for it in the past 4 weeks.
  • and are able to start work immediately (within four weeks)
    If all of the above are true then they are classified as unemployed.
  • if they are not able to start immediately or are not actively seeking work then they are classified as jobless.

    • Census of Population and Dwellings

    This is carried out every 5 years and has the largest possible sample size. However, due to the large size it
    takes a long time to analyse the data.

    The Census measure includes:

  • Defines labour force as all those who work for 1 hour or more a week for pay or profit.
  • all people who say they are out of work
  • and are �actively� seeking it (have looked for it in the past four weeks.
    If all of the above are true then they are classified as unemployed.

    • Quarterly Employment Survey

    This is carried out every 3 months and surveys 18 000 businesses from a range of businesses and regions across New Zealand.
    It measures quaterly estimates of average hourly and weekly wages and the number of filled jobs.

    This measures the number of filled jobs and not the number employed.
    Individuals with more than one job are counted at each work place, so this survey might give a
    figure higher than the number of people employed.
    The employment survey, survey�s employers rather than employees. It asks all employers in all business locations owned by economically significant enterprises in survey industries that employ staff.

    The business must:

  • Have more than $30,000 annual GST expenses. And
  • Employ at least two staff.