Quarterly Labour Market Scorecard
The Labour Market Scorecard was a quarterly update of labour market statistics and indicators. It provided an overview of the state of the labour market.
On this page
About the report
The scorecard presented key indicators on:
- Labour demand (e.g. employment, annual growth)
- Labour market matching (e.g. unemployment, underutilisation, NEET rates, job vacancies)
- Labour supply (e.g. participation rates, migration)
- Labour quality (e.g. qualifications – school and tertiary)
- Workforce performance (e.g. skilled occupation rate, employee confidence, health and safety)
The scorecard was provided to Ministers within a day of each new release of the Labour Market Statistics, published by StatsNZ every November, February, May and August. It was then published here shortly after. The Quarterly Labour Market Scorecard has been discontinued. Ministers are now provided with the Labour Market Statistics Snapshot.
Latest report
Created February 2019
Previous quarters
Created November 2018
Created August 2018
Created May 2018
Glossary of terms and sources
| Indicator | Measure | Source | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economic growth | Gross Domestic Product | Stats NZ, National Accounts | Production measure, seasonally adjusted chain-volume series expressed in 2009/10 prices. |
| Labour demand | Employment | Stats NZ , Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) | Seasonally adjusted, number of people in employment in the working-age population. |
| Labour demand | Employment by industry | HLFS | Employment by industry (ANZSIC 2006). |
| Labour demand | Full-time/part-time employment growth | HLFS | Full time = 30 hours per week or more. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. |
| Labour demand | Employment by gender | HLFS | Employment by gender. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. |
| Labour demand | Consensus employment forecasts | NZ Institute of Economic Research | An average of New Zealand economic forecasts compiled from a survey of financial and economic agencies. |
| Labour demand | Employment by region | HLFS | Number of people in employment by region. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. |
| Labour market matching | Unemployment rate | HLFS | Seasonally adjusted, number of unemployed divided by total labour force. |
| Labour market matching | Unemployment by gender, ethnicity and long-term unemployed | HLFS | Unemployment rate by ethnicity for total response ethnic group. Long-term unemployment (more than 6 months) excludes duration not specified. |
| Labour market matching | Underutilisation rate by gender | HLFS | Seasonally adjusted number of underutilised persons/extended labour force. Underutilisation rate includes people who are either unemployed, underemployed or in the potential labour force. |
| Labour market matching | Youth NEET | HLFS | Seasonally adjusted, people aged 15-24 not in employment, education or training (includes those caring for children or others). |
| Labour market matching | Job vacancies | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), Jobs Online | All Vacancies Index - trend series of advertised vacancy growth on the main internet job boards. |
| Labour market matching | Vacancies per applicant | SEEK NZ, SEEK Employment Index | Trend series of change in the number of vacancies per applicant on the SEEK internet job board. As the index goes up there are fewer applicants for each vacancy and is consistent with a fall in surplus labour. SEEK had been re-indexed the data to 2010. |
| Labour market matching | Difficulty finding skilled labour | NZIER, Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion (QSBO) | Difficulty in finding the skilled staff you want today compared with three months ago - % of firms finding it harder minus % of firms finding it easier – a score above zero indicates it is getting harder to find skilled staff. |
| Labour market matching | Unemployment by region | HLFS | Unemployment rate by region. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. |
| Labour supply | Labour force participation rate | HLFS | Seasonally adjusted, total labour force divided by working age (15+) population. |
| Labour supply | Labour force participation rate by gender | HLFS | Seasonally adjusted, labour force participation rate by gender. |
| Labour supply | Labour force participation rate by ethnicity | HLFS | Participation rate by ethnicity for total response ethnic group. |
| Labour supply | Migration | Stats NZ, International travel and migration | Net permanent and long-term migration per year, taken from StatsNZ calculated provisional migration estimates. These estimates were first produced for November 2018 and are based on modelling of migration outcomes using administrative border crossing data. |
| Labour supply | Departures to Australia | Stats NZ, International travel and migration | Total permanent and long-term departures to Australia per year by NZ citizens. |
| Labour supply | Retirement rates | Stats NZ, National Labour Force Projections | MBIE calculations of the net number of people aged 50 years and over who will leave the labour force each year, based on Stats NZ median scenario labour force projections (50th percentile). |
| Labour supply | Immigration Approvals | MBIE, Migration Trends & Outlook | Previous year and year-to-date number of people approved to work under the Essential Skills Policy. |
| Labour supply | Participation rate by region | HLFS | Participation rate by region. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. |
| Labour quality | Qualification attainment rate (25-34 year olds with level 4+ quals) | Ministry of Education, HLFS | Number and share of 25 to 34 year olds first time completions of a qualification at NCEA level 4 or above. |
| Labour quality | Degree holders in the workforce | MBIE estimates based on HLFS | Number of people with a Bachelor's degree or higher, aged 15-64 years in the labour force divided by total population aged 15-64 years. |
| Labour quality | 18 year olds with NCEA level 2 or higher | Ministry of Education | Rate of 18 year olds attaining at least NCEA level 2 or equivalent qualification. |
| Labour quality | School leavers with less than NCEA level 1 | Ministry of Education | School leaver qualifications - those with little or no qualifications. |
| Labour quality | Qualification attainment rate by region (25-34 year olds with level 4+ quals) | MBIE estimates based on HLFS | Number and share of 25 to 34 year olds first time completions of a qualification at NCEA level 4 or above, split by region. Reported as annual average. |
| Workplace performance | Skilled occupation rate | MBIE, Direct Estimate of Employment (DEE) | Number of people employed in a skilled occupation (ANZSCO level 1-3)/ total number of employed people. These estimates are prepared using 2013 Census data and are not comparable to previously published estimates. |
| Workplace performance | Private sector productivity related wage growth | Stats NZ, Labour Cost Index (LCI) | New wage growth measure. This is the difference between the unadjusted labour cost index (which includes productivity related pay increases, for example due to performance or experience) and the adjusted (official) Labour Cost Index (which removes these sorts of increases, and is a pure wage inflation measure). |
| Workplace performance | Work-related fatal injuries | Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC); WorkSafe NZ; Statistics New Zealand, Serious Injuries Outcome Indicators | Age standardised rates. The rates are per 100,000 person years at risk. Three-year moving averages are calculated, no data presented for 2010. |
| Workplace performance | Work-related serious non-fatal claims | ACC; Ministry of Health, National Minimum Dataset; Statistics New Zealand, Serious Injuries Outcome Indicators | Age standardised rates. The rates are per 100,000 person years at risk. |
| Workplace performance | Labour market efficiency | World Economic Forum, Annual Global Competitiveness Report | Measure based on an international opinion survey of business executives, incorporating “cooperation in labour-employer relations, flexibility of wage determination, rigidity of employment, hiring and firing practices, firing costs, pay and productivity, reliance on professional management, brain drain and female participation in the labour force.” |
| Workplace performance | Employment confidence | Westpac McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index (survey of employees) | Index based on measures of employee perceptions of future job prospects, job security and earnings growth: index is net measure of positive and negative perceptions, 100 = neutral. |