Unemployment rate

Social and economic indicators
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Why we monitor unemployment rate

Waikato Regional Council monitors the region’s unemployment rate in order to:

  • assess the 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.

Unemployment is an indicator of social exclusion. People who feel socially excluded from the society they live in are less likely to hold environmentally friendly attitudes and less likely to participate in democratic processes.

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 less services are available, job opportunities in an area will decrease.

By identifying areas of unemployment, Waikato Regional Council can evaluate how it can support people in these areas so they can afford to stay in them.

Unemployment may also indicate a lack of appropriate skills and expertise. This can then be addressed by providing access to suitable training and education.

High unemployment rates are likely to push people to leave an area in order to look for work. In areas of high unemployment, unsustainable economic development for the sole purpose of creating as many jobs as possible may become more important than sustainable development that both protects the environment and provides employment.

Areas with low unemployment rates tend to attract people wanting to live in them. Although this can be positive for an area, it can put pressure on an area’s infrastructure and housing needs.

What's happening?

As at 31 March 2021, 3.5 per cent of people in the Waikato region reported that they were unemployed, above the national average of 3.4 per cent.

Results - data and trends

The first visual below shows a breakdown for the eleven territorial authorities within the Waikato region. This data is sourced from the 2018 Census of Population and Dwellings so indicating that the Waikato region and New Zealand unemployment rates (4.3 and 3.9 per cent respectively) are slightly different to HLFS measurements.

The number of unemployed is defined as people over the age of 15 who are actively seeking work and not already employed.

  • As at 31 March 2018, there were 230,871 people employed either full-time or part-time in the Waikato region,  around nineteen per cent increase from March 2013.
  • There were 15,700 people unemployed and seeking work, around 4 per cent more than in 2013.
  • South Waikato district had the highest unemployment rate of 6.3 per cent followed by Hamilton city at 5.6 per cent. Thames Coromandel had the lowest rate (3.0 per cent) but this is only a small, rural portion of the Waikato region.

The second visual below shows that the most recent unemployment rate (3.5 per cent) in the Waikato region is slightly higher than the overall unemployment rate (3.4 per cent) in New Zealand. The dashboard means you can view data by employment status by region and the districts for different Census years. 

Source: Statistics NZ and Census, 2018

Methods - How we monitor

More information

When this indicator is updated

The New Zealand and Waikato region indicator is updated every year after the March quarter HLFS results are published. The district-level and Māori unemployment rates are updated every 5 years after the results of each census are published.

Last updated July 2023

Further indicator developments

No changes are planned for this indicator.

Footnotes

  1. Statistics New Zealand defines unemployed people as 'All people in the working-age population who, during the week ended were without a paid job, were available for work and:
    • had actively sought work in the 4 weeks prior, or
    • had a new job to start within 4 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.