In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of people employed in New Zealand dropped by 29,000 (1.3 percent) in the March 2008 quarter, Statistics New Zealand reported. Employment has returned to levels seen early in 2007, and follows a record high in the December 2007 quarter.

Full-time employment decreased by 1.7 percent in the March 2008 quarter. This was driven by a decline in female full-time employment of 22,000 following an increase in the December quarter of 31,000. Male full-time employment decreased by 0.6 percent. Despite a small increase in female part-time employment over the quarter, total part-time employment decreased by 1.1 percent. This was due to a decline in male part-time employment of 4,000.

The number of people in the labour force decreased by 24,000 (1.1 percent) to 2,222,000 in the March 2008 quarter, while the working-age population grew by 10,100 (0.3 percent). This resulted in a decrease in the labour force participation rate of 0.9 percentage points to 67.7 percent. Both the male and female labour force participation rates declined in the March 2008 quarter to 74.6 percent and 61.1 percent, respectively.

In the March 2008 quarter the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 3.6 percent. The female unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 3.9 percent, while the male unemployment rate remained flat at 3.4 percent.

The number of people unemployed increased by 4,000 (5.5 percent). The number of unemployed females increased by 3,000 to 40,000, while the number of unemployed males increased by 1,000 to 41,000 in the March 2008 quarter.

The unadjusted unemployment rates by ethnic group for the March 2008 quarter were: 8.6 percent for Māori, 8.2 percent for Pacific peoples, 6.0 percent for the ‘Other’ ethnic group and 3.0 percent for European.

The Adelaide rental vacancy rate has remained stable over the past month while the number of tenants in the market eased, the Real Estate Institute of South Australia (REISA) reports.

REISA President Robin Turner said metropolitan Adelaide recorded a vacancy rate of 1.8 percent in the month of March – down from 1.9 percent in February but up from 0.9 percent this time last year.

“Anecdotal evidence from property managers indicates that tenant demand for rental properties in Adelaide has levelled off in recent months as a result of higher rental prices,” Mr Turner said. “However, there are still a lot of high quality tenants in the market at the moment ready to snap up the right property when it’s listed.”

Mr Turner said the supply and demand in the local rental market had balanced out this year after Adelaide experienced extremely tight conditions in 2007.

“Properties that are in high supply – such as units and apartments in the city and Glenelg areas – have recorded higher vacancy rates in March and tend to be seasonal in demand,” he said. “These conditions offer a balance in the rental market for both investors and renters, but with the right price and location, any property will let.”

The REISA vacancy rate survey is broken down into six main areas. The statistics for March 2008 were:

• City – All city and North Adelaide only –4.03 percent
• West – Suburbs west of West Terrace, between Port Road and Anzac Highway– 1.90 percent
• South – Suburbs south of South Terrace, between Glen Osmond Road and Anzac Highway, including Glenelg suburbs – 2.14 percent
• East – Suburbs east of the city square, between Payneham and Glen Osmond Roads, excluding the Hills area – 1.64 percent
• North – Suburbs north of North Adelaide, between Port and Payneham Roads, turning into Lower North East Road – 1.15 percent
• Hills – Suburbs from Crafers to Nairne – 1.49 percent

Adelaide Top Performing Suburbs For Weekly Rents
March Quarter 2008

assumed exchange rate $1.00 = £0.48

British professionals could earn an average 40 percent more by relocating abroad, research shows. The average professional expatriate earns £67,000, compared to a UK average of £47,000,42.6 percent less, according to NatWest International.

Its “wealth ranking survey”, undertaken with the Centre of Future Studies think-tank, shows that the United Arab Emirates tops the charts, with professionals netting an average annual salary of £79,000. Even Portugal, at the lower end, comes in with a respectable average annual wage of £58,000.

However, when the cost of living is taken into account Spain (with an average expat salary of £65,000) and Italy (£76,000) jumped up the table.

David Isley, head of personal banking at NatWest International, said: “The wage packets of expats are very encouraging for people who are looking to move abroad. People who are willing to move abroad not only benefit from bigger earnings in countries such as Spain and Italy, but also have the advantage of a lower cost of living.”

Overall, 68 percent of those surveyed found that the cost of living abroad to be lower than in the UK, which lead to 90 percent considering themselves financially better off.

Almost 70 percent also said they felt healthier living abroad.

Isley said: “Expats who have moved abroad appear to be wealthier, healthier and happier and all these factors have contributed to a better quality of life. It seems as if expats have not only found their pot of gold abroad, but are able to enjoy themselves and feel healthier for having made the move.”

The global survey also revealed the countries with the highest proportion of Britons working in certain occupations.

Canada had the most engineers, medical personnel, academics and teachers. IT professionals seemed to flock to Sweden; economists and accountants to Singapore; scientists to New Zealand; financial services workers to the UAE; and marketing and sales professionals to Portugal.

The research looked at expats in the following ten countries: Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and the UAE.

A total of 1,399 expats were surveyed. The report was also based on a range of data including figures from the Office for National Statistics, International Passenger Survey, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Values Survey.

Britain is experiencing the worst “brain drain” of any country as highly qualified professionals settle abroad, according to a study by the OECD. Record numbers of Britons are leaving - many of them doctors, teachers and engineers - in the biggest exodus from the UK for almost 50 years.

The telegraph.uk reported that there are now 3.247 million British-born people living abroad, of whom more than 1.1 million are highly skilled university graduates. No other country is losing so many qualified people. Britain has now lost more than one in 10 of its most skilled citizens, while overall only Mexico has had more people emigrate.

The figures, based on official records from more than 220 countries, will alarm Gordon Brown as tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money is spent on educating graduates. The cost of training a junior doctor, for example, is £250,000.

The most popular destinations are English-speaking countries such as Australia, America, Canada and New Zealand and holiday areas including France and Spain. Almost 60 per cent of those leaving take jobs, although hundreds of thousands of retired people live abroad.

The motivations for leaving Britain were not studied. However, high house prices and taxes and poor climate are frequently cited.

A spokesman for the Paris-based OECD said last night: “British people have lots of opportunities to move and work abroad so very highly-skilled people are travelling around. It is seen by many British people as part of their personal development to have some experience abroad.”

Britain’s exodus is far higher than any of the OECD’s other 29 members. Germany has lost only 860,000 highly-skilled workers, America 410,000 and France 370,000.

Danny Sriskandarajah, a migration expert at the IPPR think-tank, said: “There is a long-term trend of British people lured abroad by a slightly better lifestyle. They are actively targeted by countries such as Australia and New Zealand.”

The emigration was leading to a rapid change in British society as large numbers of highly-skilled immigrants moved to this country to replace those leaving, he said.

“Britain has been lucky - although it has lost substantial numbers of people, it has attracted more than a million skilled immigrants to replace them. If they stop coming then that would be a problem.”

Figures from the Office for National Statistics last year, suggested that 207,000 Britons - one every three minutes - left in 2006. The emigration rate is at its highest since just after the Second World War.

A British team has designed a hypersonic passenger aeroplane that could one day fly passengers between Europe and Australia in less than five hours. The A2 plane, designed by Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines, could carry 300 passengers at a top speed of almost 4,000 mph, five times the speed of sound.

The plane, which at 143 metres long would be about twice the size of the biggest current jets, could fly non-stop for up to 12,500 miles. It would be lighter than current intercontinental planes and designed to operate on liquid hydrogen.

The jet would produce only water vapour and nitrous oxide as exhaust. It’s high-speed would make windows impracticable so flat screen monitors instead would substitute for an actual outside view.

Fares for the four-hour and 40-miute flight to Australia would be comparable with current first-class tickets on standard flights, of around £3,500. The company said the aircraft, which is still at the concept stage, could be operating within 25 years.

Alan Bond, managing director of Reaction Engines, told The Guardian newspaper: “The A2 is designed to leave Brussels international airport, fly quietly and sub-sonically out into the north Atlantic at mach 0.9 before reaching mach 5 across the North Pole and heading over the Pacific to Australia.
The flight time from Brussels to Australia, allowing for air traffic control, would be four hours 40 minutes. It sounds incredible by today’s standards but I don’t see why future generations can’t make day trips to Australasia. Our work shows that it is possible technically; now it’s up to the world to decide if it wants it.”

The LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) project is being funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) to encourage companies to push the boundaries of commercial air travel using technology more commonly associated with space travel.