KEY POINTS:
For the first time in nine years the annual amount of adjusted paid hours worked by New Zealanders has fallen, as global economic troubles hit the workforce.
Total paid hours fell by a seasonally adjusted 1.4 per cent in the year to December, the first annual decrease since 1999, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said today.
The figures in the quarterly employment survey (QES), show the decrease was mainly due to decreases in the manufacturing, construction, and wholesale trade industries.
For just the December quarter, seasonally adjusted total paid hours were also down 1.4 per cent.
Seasonally adjusted total gross earnings increased by 4.1 per cent in the year to December, but did not increase in the December quarter.
It was the first quarter since June 1999 to show no growth in seasonally adjusted total gross earnings, SNZ said.
As total gross earnings increased over the year despite a decrease in paid hours, average total hourly earnings increased by 5.5 per cent in the year to December.
Employment, as measured by full-time equivalent employees decreased by 0.8 per cent in the year to December 2008, but was up 0.4 per cent in the December quarter.
The picture was similar for filled jobs, also falling 0.8 per cent for the year but rising 0.4 per cent for the latest quarter.
SNZ said the rise in the latest quarter was the smallest increase for a December quarter for both series since 1991.
The labour cost index (LCI), also released today, showed that salary and wage rates, including overtime, were 3.3 per cent higher in the December 2008 quarter than in the December 2007 quarter.
That increase was down from a 3.6 per cent annual rise for the September 2008 quarter, which had been the largest since the series began in 1992, SNZ said.
In the December quarter, salary and wage rates, including overtime, increased 0.7 per cent, down from a record 1.1 per cent increase in the September quarter.
ANZ-National senior economist Khoon Goh said the main focal point was the employment activity indicators from the QES and they were "unequivocally weak".
"A sharp drop in paid hours, but more importantly the seasonally adjusted filled jobs show a 1.1 per cent decline in the quarter," he said.
BNZ senior markets economist Craig Ebert said the employment and activity indicators were a touch weaker than might be expected so early in a labour market that had always taken time to adjust.
"But the adjustment certainly seems to be coming through."
The LCI showed private sector salary and ordinary time wage rates up 0.7 per cent from the previous quarter and up 3.2 per cent from a year earlier.
The QES showed average hourly ordinary time private sector earnings up 5.1 per cent for the year and 0.8 per cent for the quarter.
The LCI measures labour costs for a fixed quantity of labour input, while the QES measures average earnings and reflects changes in the make up of the workforce.
The latest official measure of jobs will be provided by the December quarter household labour force survey due out on Thursday.
- NZPA
