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 (three 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 in the working age population who during survey week worked for one hour or more for pay/profit in the context of an employee/employer relationship or self-employment; or worked without pay for one hour or more in work that contributed to operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned or operated by a relative.
Or 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 during the survey week, who are available for work and have actively sought work in the past four weeks or had a new job to start within the next four 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; misinterpretation of questions...
Census Quick Facts
- Every five years.
- Everyone in New Zealand.
- Date yet to be decided.
- During census week worked for one hour or more for pay/profit in the context of an employee/employer relationship or self-employment; or worked without pay for one 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 four weeks.
- Only held every five 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)
- Decreased.
- Increasing.
- Seasonal unemployment is actually a type of cyclical, not frictional, unemployment, that refers to the lag time between losing a job and finding a new one.
- Sample survey, misinterpretation of questions...
Quarterly Employment Survey Task
Annually the number of full-time equivalents (FTEs) increased and the number of filled jobs decreased.
These were very small changes.
The flat employment results are reflected in flat GDP, and are a result of flat economic growth.