New Zealand Part Time Work Increasing

An increase in part-time employment in New Zealand was apparent in the latest employment figures released recently. Perhaps as a result of the economic downturn, employers appear to be striving to retain their skilled workers, but at the expense of the total number of hours worked. The number of those in work increased in the last quarter by 23,000. Part time employment rose by 17,000 compared with full time employment which rose by 6,000.

The Statistics New Zealand survey reported that recent employment growth has been concentrated in service-based industries, particularly education, and transport, storage and communications. However, the number of people employed has fallen in the agriculture, construction and manufacturing industries.

Across the regions, in the past year, there were significant increases in employment in the Bay of Plenty and Otago.

However, an increase in the working population meant that the job increases were not enough to stop a rise in the New Zealand unemployment rate which jumped to a five-year high of 4.6 per cent in December. This is up from 4.2 per cent in September and 3.4 per cent a year ago.