Labour Market Statistics: March 2024 Quarter

Labour market statistics provide a picture of the New Zealand labour market, including unemployment and employment rates, demand for labour, and changes in wages and salaries.

Key facts

In the March 2024 quarter, compared with the December 2023 quarter, the:

unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, compared with 4.0 percent
underutilisation rate rose to 11.2 percent, up from 10.7 percent
employment rate fell to 68.4 percent, down from 69.0 percent.

In the year to the March 2024 quarter:

all salary and wage rates (including overtime) increased 4.1 percent
average weekly earnings (including overtime) for full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) increased to $1,593
average ordinary time hourly earnings increased to $40.96.

Labour market stats at a glance: March 2024 quarter

Employment at a glance (seasonally adjusted)		March 2024 quarter	Quarterly change	Annual change
Employment at a glance (seasonally adjusted)		Percent	Percentage points
Unemployment rate		4.3	0.3	0.9
Underutilisation rate		11.2	0.5	2.1
Employment rate		68.4	-0.6	-1.2
Labour force participation rate		71.5	-0.3	-0.6
		(000)	Percent
Unemployed		134	8.5	30.2
Underutilised		355	4.9	26.9
Employed		2,939	-0.2	1.2
Working-age population		4,296	0.6	3.1
Wages at a glance (not seasonally adjusted)		Index	Percent
Wage inflation (salary and wage rates, including overtime)	All sectors	1382	0.9	4.1
	Private sector	1384	0.8	3.8
	Public sector	1385	1.2	5.6
LCI analytical unadjusted		1668	1.0	5.4
		Dollars	Percent
Average ordinary time hourly earnings		40.96	0.3	5.2
Hours at a glance (seasonally adjusted)		Hours	Percent
Average weekly paid hours for FTEs (QES)	Ordinary time	38.22	0.6	0.8
Average weekly paid hours for FTEs (QES)	Total	38.86	0.5	0.6
		Hours (millions)	Percent
Total weekly paid hours (QES)		75.8	1.2	4.2
Total actual weekly hours worked (HLFS)		99.7	0.4	2.2
Note: LCI - labour cost index QES - Quarterly Employment Survey HLFS - Household Labour Force Survey FTEs - full-time equivalent employees Due to rounding, changes do not always sum to the published totals.

Unemployment

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent last quarter.

For men, the unemployment rate was 4.0 percent, compared with 3.7 percent last quarter.
For women, the unemployment rate rose to 4.8 percent, up from 4.3 percent last quarter.

The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people rose to 134,000 (up 10,000) over the quarter.

Quarter	Men	Women	Total
Mar-10	5.6	6.3	5.9
Jun-10	6.7	6.5	6.6
Sep-10	5.6	6.6	6.1
Dec-10	6	6.5	6.2
Mar-11	5.7	6.4	6
Jun-11	6	6.1	6.1
Sep-11	5.6	6.3	6
Dec-11	6.1	6	6.1
Mar-12	6.1	6.7	6.4
Jun-12	6.2	6.7	6.4
Sep-12	6.6	6.9	6.7
Dec-12	6	6.7	6.3
Mar-13	5.2	6.5	5.8
Jun-13	5.5	6.5	6
Sep-13	5.5	6.2	5.8
Dec-13	5	6.4	5.7
Mar-14	5.1	6.1	5.6
Jun-14	4.6	6	5.3
Sep-14	4.6	6.1	5.3
Dec-14	4.8	6.3	5.5
Mar-15	5.2	5.9	5.5
Jun-15	4.8	6.3	5.5
Sep-15	5.2	6.1	5.7
Dec-15	4.7	5.3	5
Mar-16	5	5.6	5.3
Jun-16	4.7	5.5	5.1
Sep-16	4.7	5.3	5
Dec-16	4.8	5.8	5.3
Mar-17	4.3	5.6	4.9
Jun-17	4.8	5	4.9
Sep-17	4.1	5.4	4.7
Dec-17	4	5	4.5
Mar-18	3.9	4.8	4.4
Jun-18	4.4	4.9	4.6
Sep-18	4	4	4
Dec-18	4.4	4.2	4.3
Mar-19	3.8	4.5	4.2
Jun-19	3.7	4.4	4.1
Sep-19	3.8	4.4	4.1
Dec-19	3.9	4.3	4.1
Mar-20	4	4.4	4.2
Jun-20	3.6	4.6	4.1
Sep-20	4.8	5.6	5.2
Dec-20	4.5	5.4	4.9
Mar-21	4.6	4.7	4.6
Jun-21	3.8	4.2	4
Sep-21	3.3	3.3	3.3
Dec-21	3	3.4	3.2
Mar-22	3.1	3.4	3.2
Jun-22	3.1	3.6	3.3
Sep-22	2.9	3.7	3.3
Dec-22	3.3	3.5	3.4
Mar-23	3.2	3.6	3.4
Jun-23	3.4	3.9	3.6
Sep-23	3.7	4.1	3.9
Dec-23	3.7	4.3	4
Mar-24	4	4.8	4.3

Underutilisation

The seasonally adjusted underutilisation rate rose to 11.2 percent this quarter, up from 10.7 percent last quarter.

For men, the underutilisation rate rose to 9.2 percent, up from 8.7 percent last quarter.
For women, the underutilisation rate was 13.3 percent, compared with 13.0 percent last quarter.

The seasonally adjusted number of underutilised people rose to 355,000 in the March 2024 quarter, up 16,000 over the quarter and 75,000 over the year.

The number of youth aged 15 to 24-years-old who were underutilised increased by 41,400 over the year, comprising over half of the total national increase (not seasonally adjusted).

In the March 2024 quarter, compared with the March 2023 quarter:

21,000 more youth were unemployed
13,800 more youth were underemployed
7,000 more youth were available potential jobseekers.

The number of 15 to 24-year-old unavailable jobseekers showed no statistically significant change over the year.

Quarter	Mar-23
15-24	117300
25-34	49900
35-44	37300
45-54	34000
55-64	33600
65+	14600

108400	126200
44500	55300
32600	42000
29400	38600
29400	37800
11400	17800

Age group	Mar-24
15-24	158700
25-34	63300
35-44	51500
45-54	39800
55-64	33500
65+	17700

149300	168100
56800	69800
45900	57100
35400	44200
29600	37400
14200	21200

Employment

The seasonally adjusted employment rate fell to 68.4 percent, down from 69.0 percent last quarter.

For men, the employment rate fell to 72.8 percent, down from 73.6 percent last quarter.
For women, the employment rate fell to 64.1 percent, down from 64.5 percent last quarter.

In the March 2024 quarter, 2,939,000 people were employed.

Labour force participation

The seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate fell to 71.5 percent, down from 71.9 percent last quarter.

For men, the labour force participation rate fell to 75.8 percent, down from 76.4 percent last quarter.
For women, the labour force participation rate was 67.3 percent, compared with 67.4 percent last quarter.

The number of people who were not in the labour force (NILF) increased to 1,224,000 in the March 2024 quarter, up 22,000 over the quarter and 61,000 over the year.

Most of the annual growth in the number of working-age people who were NILF came from older people and teenagers. The number of people aged 65 years and over who were NILF rose 27,900, and NILF aged 15 to 19 years rose 16,000 (not seasonally adjusted).

Youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET)

In the March 2024 quarter, the seasonally adjusted proportion of people aged 15 to 24-years-old who were NEET was 12.4 percent.

Two decades of youth employment and education has more information on long-term NEET trends.

Wages

The labour cost index (LCI) all salary and wage rates (including overtime) increased 4.1 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, while the unadjusted LCI increased 5.4 percent.

Private sector wages increased 3.8 percent over the year.
Public sector wages increased 5.6 percent over the year.

The LCI is often compared with the consumers price index (CPI) to see how wage cost inflation compares with consumer inflation (that is, the change in prices of goods and services bought by households). Annual CPI inflation was 4.0 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter.

Quarter	LCI - all salary and wage rates	CPI - all groups
Mar-04	2.2	1.5
Jun-04	2.3	2.4
Sep-04	2.2	2.5
Dec-04	2.5	2.7
Mar-05	2.5	2.8
Jun-05	2.7	2.8
Sep-05	3.1	3.4
Dec-05	3	3.2
Mar-06	3.2	3.3
Jun-06	3.1	4
Sep-06	3.2	3.5
Dec-06	3.2	2.6
Mar-07	3.2	2.5
Jun-07	3.3	2
Sep-07	3.1	1.8
Dec-07	3.3	3.2
Mar-08	3.4	3.4
Jun-08	3.6	4
Sep-08	4	5.1
Dec-08	3.5	3.4
Mar-09	3.3	3
Jun-09	2.8	1.9
Sep-09	2.1	1.7
Dec-09	1.8	2
Mar-10	1.5	2
Jun-10	1.6	1.7
Sep-10	1.6	1.5
Dec-10	1.7	4
Mar-11	1.9	4.5
Jun-11	1.9	5.3
Sep-11	2	4.6
Dec-11	2	1.8
Mar-12	2	1.6
Jun-12	2	1
Sep-12	1.9	0.8
Dec-12	1.8	0.9
Mar-13	1.7	0.9
Jun-13	1.7	0.7
Sep-13	1.7	1.4
Dec-13	1.6	1.6
Mar-14	1.6	1.5
Jun-14	1.7	1.6
Sep-14	1.6	1
Dec-14	1.8	0.8
Mar-15	1.7	0.3
Jun-15	1.6	0.4
Sep-15	1.6	0.4
Dec-15	1.5	0.1
Mar-16	1.6	0.4
Jun-16	1.5	0.4
Sep-16	1.6	0.4
Dec-16	1.6	1.3
Mar-17	1.6	2.2
Jun-17	1.7	1.7
Sep-17	1.9	1.9
Dec-17	1.8	1.6
Mar-18	1.8	1.1
Jun-18	1.9	1.5
Sep-18	1.8	1.9
Dec-18	1.9	1.9
Mar-19	2	1.5
Jun-19	2.1	1.7
Sep-19	2.4	1.5
Dec-19	2.6	1.9
Mar-20	2.5	2.5
Jun-20	2.1	1.5
Sep-20	1.9	1.4
Dec-20	1.6	1.4
Mar-21	1.6	1.5
Jun-21	2.1	3.3
Sep-21	2.4	4.9
Dec-21	2.6	5.9
Mar-22	3	6.9
Jun-22	3.4	7.3
Sep-22	3.7	7.2
Dec-22	4.1	7.2
Mar-23	4.3	6.7
Jun-23	4.3	6
Sep-23	4.3	5.6
Dec-23	4.3	4.7
Mar-24	4.1	4

In the year to the March 2024 quarter, wages as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) also grew.

Average ordinary time hourly earnings increased to $40.96 (up 5.2 percent)
Average weekly earnings (including overtime) for full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) increased to $1,593 (up 5.8 percent).

Average hourly earnings up 5.2 percent annually has more information on earnings.

More data

Use Infoshare to access the labour market time series.

Subject category: Work income and spending
Group: Household labour force survey - HLF
Group: Quarterly employment survey - QEM
Group: Labour cost index - LCI

Definitions and metadata

Labour market statistics: March 2024 quarter - Period specific information - DataInfo+ includes data quality notes for the March 2024 quarter, including response and achieved sample rates.

Labour market statistics - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce this release, and related metadata.

Household Labour Force Survey - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce household labour force statistics, and related metadata.

Labour cost index - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce labour cost index statistics, and related metadata.

Quarterly Employment Survey - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce quarterly employment survey statistics, and related metadata.

Technical enquiries

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ISSN 2422-8699

Next release

Labour market statistics: June 2024 quarter will be released on 7 August 2024.

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