Key Points | Report Card | Technical Information | Data
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What is happening in our region
Environment Waikato monitors the unemployment rate in the Waikato region. The graph shows that the unemployment rate in the Waikato region is slightly higher than New Zealand’s unemployment rate. Since 1991, unemployment rates for both the Waikato region and New Zealand have been dropping.
- The data were collected on April 3, 1991, March 5, 1996, March 6, 2001 and March 7, 2006.
- View this graph’s data.
- Find out about the unemployment rate in your local area.
The number of unemployed is taken from the Census of Population and Dwellings, which identifies people over the age of 15 that are employed full-time, part-time or are unemployed1. This is called the ‘Total Labour Force’. The Total Labour Force does not include:
- people who said they were not in the paid labour force – for example, people who are retired, working unpaid in the home or beneficiaries who are not actively seeking work
- people who did not identify their work and labour force status.
In the Waikato region, one-third of people aged 15 years and over are not part of the Total Labour Force. In 2006, 10,260 people in the Total Labour Force said they were unemployed and 185,688 people were either in part or full-time employment.
Unemployment rates within the region vary between districts. In 2001 the highest levels of unemployment were in South Waikato (7.9 percent), the Waikato District (7.6 percent) and Hamilton City (6.8 percent). The lowest levels of unemployment were in Rotorua (2.7 percent)2, Waipa (3.3 percent), and Franklin (3.5 percent) .
We found no direct connections between population growth rates and/or education rates and unemployment rates in the districts.
Throughout New Zealand, Maori unemployment rates are consistently higher than the unemployment rate of the general population. In 2006, 20 percent of the Waikato's population were Maori, compared with a national average of 14 percent. Nearly 12 percent of Maori within the Waikato region were unemployed in March 2006 compared with 5.2 percent unemployment for the region as a whole.
Why the unemployment rate is important
Environment Waikato monitors the region’s unemployment rate in order to:
- assess areas of economic or social hardship
- determine where under-utilised labour resources exist
- help explain why some areas in the region are reducing in population, leaving under-utilised services and resources.
The unemployment rate is also an indicator of people’s ability to participate in society. ‘Social exclusion’ occurs when people are not able to access basic infrastructures or services and are unable to participate fully in society. This is caused by a number of factors, including, low incomes, unemployment, poor housing and poor education.
People who feel socially excluded from their community are less likely to have environmentally friendly attitudes. They are also less likely to get involved in democratic processes, such as making a submission on proposed policies or a resource consent, or attending a consent hearing3.
Areas with high unemployment often have decreasing populations. When populations decrease, existing infrastructure services, such as education or healthcare, become under-used. The cost of maintaining these services is then spread across fewer and fewer people, making the services uneconomic. As fewer services are available, job opportunities in an area will decrease.
High unemployment rates are likely to ‘push’ people to leave an area in order to look for work. People are attracted to areas with low unemployment rates to live. Although this can be positive for an area, it can put pressure on an area’s infrastructure and housing needs.
Find out more about the region’s population.
What Environment Waikato is doing
- Environment Waikato is investigating how to make information about the environment more available to people who do not have internet access. One possibility is the introduction of information ‘kiosks’ in publicly accessible locations such as district/city councils, libraries, community centres and marae.
- We provide free events, publications and information about the environment so that all members of the Waikato community have access to environmental information.
- We make it easier for people on low incomes to pay their rates by having alternative payment plans.
- We provide graduate scholarships at local tertiary institutions to support local researchers with environmental projects.
- We monitor various aspects of the region’s economy to determine where pressures on the environment will come from. We use this information when developing the Long-Term Council Community Plan.
- Environment Waikato promotes sustainable development and businesses in the region, which work towards a prosperous regional economy and full employment.
What you can do to help
You can help your local community by:
- employing local people
- buying locally produced goods and services so that money stays in your community for longer, producing more jobs
- encouraging sustainable businesses that create new jobs, improve the local economy and are environmentally aware
- checking out local employment opportunities or volunteer within the community to gain work experience.
More information
More detail on this indicator, including how and where Environment Waikato collects this information, is available in the Technical Information page.
Useful links
Department of Statistics – Census of Population and Dwellings
Ministry of Social Development – Work and Income
Volunteering Waikato.
Related indicators
Footnotes
- Statistics New Zealand defines an unemployed people as 'All people in the working-age population who, during the week ended March 7, 2006, were without a paid job, were available for work and:
- had actively sought work in the four weeks ending March 7, 2006, or
- had a new job to start within four weeks.
A person whose only job search method in the four weeks prior to the Census has been to look at job advertisements in the newspapers is not considered to be actively seeking work.'
- Only the area of Rotorua District surrounding Reporoa is included in the Waikato region.
- Paraskevopoulos, S, KJ Korfiatis & JD Pantis. 2003. Social Exclusion as Constraint for the Development of Environmentally Friendly Attitudes. Society and Natural Resources, 16: 759-774.