NZ workers feeling pinch of Aussie job losses

Over 20,000 NZ-born workers currently living in Australia have lost their jobs in the year to May. Photo / Mark Mitchell

SYDNEY - New Zealand-born workers in Australia are among the worst hit by job losses as the global financial crisis bites, new research shows.

Research published in The Australian newspaper said the number of New Zealanders employed in Australia's workforce had dropped by 20,800 to 304,100 in the year to May.

Full-time New Zealand-born workers across the Tasman dropped by 11,000 to 236,700, while part-time workers dropped by 9800 to 67,400.

It increased the rate of unemployed New Zealanders in Australia to 7 per cent, up 2.8 per cent in the year to May.

The figures reflected a trend of job losses in Australia, mainly being felt by migrant workers.

Australian-born workers dropped 22,000 full-time jobs in the same period, but picked up an extra 74,500 part-time jobs (for a net gain of 52,500 positions).

In the same period, migrant workers lost 37,100 full-time jobs, and gained 21,600 part-time jobs.

While New Zealanders fared poorly on the job front, Indians bucked the trend among migrant workers.

Of the Indian-born population in Australia, there were 19,500 more full-time and 18,500 more part-time jobs in the same 12-month period.

Australia has defied the global recession so far, with unemployment at 5.7 per cent.

In the year to May, the Australian economy added a total of 35,900 jobs, or 0.3 per cent.

Unemployment was heading toward double digits in the US, Europe and Britain, according to Macquarie Bank economist Rory Robertson.

The latest data from the US showed unemployment at 9.5 per cent in June - a 26-year high. The Americans have shed 6.5 million jobs, or 4.7 per cent of all positions, since the recession began in earnest last year.

- NZPA