Māori Employment

Summary: For the September 2008 quarter, of the 229,300 Māori in the labour force, 7.9 percent (or 18,100) were unemployed, an increase of 0.9% from the previous quarter. Māori are over-represented in the export-focused industries (agriculture, forestry, fishing, and manufacturing) and in lower skilled occupations.

Background

17. For the September 2008 quarter, the Māori working age population (i.e. Māori aged 15 years and over) was estimated to be 340,200:
    • 67.4 percent of the working age population were in the labour force;¹¹
    • 92.1 percent of Māori in the labour force were employed and 7.9 percent were unemployed.¹²
18. Māori are over-represented in the export-focused industries (agriculture, forestry, fishing, and manufacturing) but the proportion of all Māori employed in these industries has fallen from 29.1% to 23.3% from 2002 to 2008. Māori employment growth has been strongest in construction over the past five years. The percentage of all Māori employed in construction has risen from 6.5% in June 2002 to 9.8% by June 2008.¹³
19. Māori remain over-represented in the lower skilled occupations and under-represented in the higher skilled occupations. Over the past five years most of the increase in Māori employment has been in the two medium skilled categories, the skilled and semi-skilled occupation groups, which cover a large cluster of occupations such as technicians, trades, and sales and service workers.¹⁴

¹¹ Household Labour Force Survey, Statistics New Zealand 2008
¹² Ibid.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ Ibid.