Job decline continues in December 2009 year

Embargoed until 10:45am – 23 February 2011

Job decline continues in December 2009 year

Seasonally adjusted filled jobs declined 2.9 percent over the year to December 2009, Statistics New Zealand said today. This decrease continues the annual decline seen from the March 2009 quarter.

Actual filled jobs declined 2.9 percent to 1,798,130 in the December 2009 year. Job losses were greatest for those aged 15–19 years (down 20,930 jobs or 15.2 percent), and the decrease in the number of actual filled jobs for males (down 29,800 jobs or 3.2 percent) was greater than that for females (down 23,420 or 2.5 percent).

“What we are seeing in the December 2009 year is a continuation of the recession, with a further reduction in youth employment and low levels of movement between employers,” labour market statistics manager Diane Ramsay said.

The linked employer-employee data (LEED) quarterly series is published with a lag of four quarters and uses information from existing taxation and Statistics NZ sources to provide a range of information on the dynamics of the New Zealand labour market. Further breakdowns by age, sex, industry, sector, firm size, region, and territorial authority are available on Infoshare and Table Builder on the Statistics NZ website.

For more information on LEED, see the Guide to Interpreting the LEED Data.

Geoff Bascand 23 February 2011 Government Statistician

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