An overview of labour force participation in Auckland, as indicated by results of Stats NZ's quarterly Household Labour Force Survey. HLFS

Overview and highlights

For the June 2022 quarter, compared to the preceding quarter (March 2022):

• Auckland's unemployment rate was 3.4%, compared to 3.6% in March 2022.2 This represents Auckland's lowest June overall unemployment rate since 2007
• The number of people who were unemployed decreased by 2400 to 33,100
• Slightly more people were employed (951,900)
• The number of people not in the labour force (NILF) fell slightly to 377,600
• At 72.3%, the labour force participation rate rose slightly.

In addition

• The number of average weekly hours worked was 38.2 (including full and part-timers), similar to pre-Covid
• The gap in numbers of hours worked per week between males (41.0) and females (35.0) was lower (6.0 hours) than at any time between 1994 and 2018
• The rate of young people aged 15 to 24 not in employment, education or training (NEET) was 11.0%, below March 2022 (15.3%) but similar to the rest of New Zealand (10.7%), and similar to June 2021 (11.3%).

Over the year ended June 2022, compared to the year ended June 2021:

• The unemployment rate averaged 3.3%, compared to 5.1% in the 12 months to June 2021 - constituting a reduction of one third
• The unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 19 years averaged 15.0%, a quarter lower than the year before (19.3%)
• The unemployment rate for females averaged 3.4%, a third lower than 5.5% a year prior. The rate for males averaged 3.1% (down a third from 4.8% a year prior), so the gap between males and females is currently minimal (0.3%)
• Changes in the rates of unemployment varied between ethnic groups, with the largest decrease in the rate of unemployment being among Asians (halving to 2.7%, from 5.2%)
• Pacific people had the highest equal rate unemployment at 6.3%, down a third from 9.2% the year before, as did Maori (6.3%, down over a quarter from 8.6%)
• The labour force participation rate averaged 72.1%, slightly above 2021 (70.4%).
• The labour force participation rate for females (67.2%) was above a year prior (64.7%), but for males (77.2%) the change was smaller (from 76.3%)
• Labour force participation rates rose from a year prior for all ages, especially 15-19 (43.1%, up 3.8% from 39.3%) and 55 years plus (50.8%, up 1.9% from 48.9%)
• Labour force participation rates were above a year prior for all ethnicities, especially Asian (75.9%, a 2.2% rise). Maori (68.0%, up 2.0%), but also Pacific (64.4%) and
  European (73.2%) (both up 1.6%).

Overview published August 2022.

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