Our labour market, social indicators

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

More people are receiving JobSeeker Support payments in Tairāwhiti but our unemployment rate remains at 4.5 percent — the same as in 2022 — there was a smidgen of employment growth last year, and our young people are more likely to be in employment, education or training. This as our regional economy shrank a little over the course of last year, by 1.8 percent according to provisional estimates by Infometrics outlined in its regional economic monitor released last week.

Employment was up 0.7 percent, with an average of 23,247 people working here in 2023; nationally there was employment growth of 3.1 percent.

Jobseeker Support recipients were up 8.5 percent — with an average of 2527 people on this benefit last year — compared with 3.5 percent growth nationally, and a 10-year average number here of 2261.

Our annual average unemployment rate last year of 4.5 percent is higher than the national average rate of 3.7 percent (over the past decade, unemployment peaked here at 9.6 percent in September 2017), but it is notable that the national rate had lifted to 4.0 percent (seasonally adjusted) by the final quarter of 2023.

Another key labour market indicator for this region is the annual average NEET rate — the percentage of people aged 15-24 who are Not engaged in Employment, Education or Training. This was 16.1 percent in 2023, down from 18.4 percent in 2022. Over the past 10 years, the NEET rate in Tairāwhiti peaked at 22.5 percent in June 2018. The national average NEET rate last year was 11.7 percent (having peaked at 13.0 percent in 2020).

Among social indicators covered in the monitor, other benefit recipients (including sole parent and supported living payments) increased by 3.6 percent to an average of 3470 people in 2023, just ahead of the national increase of 3.0 percent.

In the year to September 2023, only  35.9 percent of school students here attended greater than 90 percent of classes (compared with 50.6 percent nationally), down from 36.6 percent in the previous 12 months.

Gaming machine profits increased by 8.6 percent to $13.2 million in the year to September 2023, less than the national increase of 15.5 percent.

The crime rate in Tairāwhiti was 459 (per 10,000 residents) in 2023, up 4.8 percent from 438 in 2022. The crime rate nationwide last year was also up 5 percent, to 236 per 10,000 residents (led by a more than 25 percent increase in theft and traffic offences). Over the past eight years, the annual average crime rate in Tairāwhiti peaked at 806 in March 2017.

An editorial on housing indicators covered in the monitor, which are of critical importance at this time of crisis in public housing and surging rental costs since 2019, will run next week.