Secondary activities
Measuring Employment
Employment
Curriculum links
NCEA Economics Level 2
Achievement Standard 2.6 [AS90761]
Process and interpret statistical data in relation to given economic issues
Background
Statistics New Zealand collects information on employment from surveys such as the Quarterly Employment Survey, Household Labour Force Survey and the census. The student activity Measuring Employment looks at how employment is measured in the three different surveys.
The student information page about the connection between unemployment and level of qualifications provides students with links to pages on the Statistics New Zealand website to help them complete the research task in StatZing!
Web activity answers
Household Labour Force Survey quick facts
- every quarter [3 months]
- 15,000 households/30,000 people
- civilian, non-institutionalised, usually resident population 15 years and over
- hospitals, old peoples’ homes, those in non-private dwellings, inmates of penal institutions, armed forces, overseas diplomats, those living on off-shore islands [except Waiheke], overseas visitors, under 15s
- those 15 years or older
- those who during survey week worked for 1 hour or more for pay/profit in the context of an employee/employer relationship or self-employment; or worked without pay for 1 hour or more in work that contributed to operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned or operated by a relative.
Had a job but were not at work due to illness/injury, personal or family responsibilities, bad weather or mechanical breakdown, direct involvement in industrial dispute, leave or holiday
- those in the working-age population, without a paid job, who are available for work and have actively sought work in the past 4 weeks
- employed plus unemployed
- retired people; those not working for family reasons
- labour force/working-age population x 100
- unemployed/labour force x 100
- sample survey; quick facts misinterpretation of questions...
Census quick facts
- every 5 years
- everyone in NZ
- Tuesday 7 March 2006
- During Census week worked for 1 hour or more for pay/profit in the context of an employee/employer relationship or self-employment; or worked without pay for 1 hour or more in work that contributed to operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned or operated by a relative. Had a job but were not at work due to illness/injury, personal or family responsibilities, bad weather or mechanical breakdown, direct involvement in industrial dispute, leave or holiday.
- in working-age population, without a paid job, available for work, and have actively sought work in the past 4 weeks
- only held every 5 years; misinterpretation of questions; some people avoid answering the survey...
Quarterly Employment Survey quick facts
- quarterly estimates of change – levels of average hourly, and average weekly, gross earnings; average weekly paid hours, and number of filled jobs
- 18,000
- payweek ending on or immediately before the 20th of the middle month of the quarter
- full and part-time employees plus working proprietors in businesses with paid employees
- full-time paid employees plus half the number of part-time paid employees
- sample survey, response rates...
Labour Force task
Completed table (attach spreadsheet)
- increased
- decreased
- Seasonal unemployment is actually a type of cyclical not frictional unemployment, which refers to the lag time between losing a job and finding a new one.
- sample survey, misinterpretation of questions...
Quarterly Employment Survey Task
Increase in filled jobs, increase in number of full-time equivalents (FTEs).
This is reflected by the decreased unemployment rate.
Increase in employment results from increase in economic growth.
Statzing Answers
Unemployment by Ethnic Group
- Decrease for all
- Lower
- European/Pākehā – higher average qualifications, greater training opportunities, sometimes a high concentration of Māori in regions with few job opportunities
- Sampling error, some people don’t specify ethnic group, some specify more than one ethnic group so are priority coded ([Māori, Pacific peoples, European/Pakeha, Other).
Unemployment by Region
- Trend – decreasing
- Northland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne/Hawkes Bay
- Lack of industry, depressed economically – no business, consumer confidence, high proportion of lower/no qualifications, not well resourced, structural unemployment
Age and Unemployment
- Graph
- 45-49 years – Females have returned to labour force, people keen to work to support families, provide for retirement – 65 and over – many retired
- 15-19 years – inexperience, lack of qualifications; 45-49 years – experienced, well qualified.
Gender and Unemployment
- Higher proportion of males
- Males slightly less
- Time out for family reasons; male traditional income earner in [smaller] proportion of families
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