Strong Employment Growth in the Wellington Region

MEDIA RELEASE

10 November 2006

Strong Employment Growth in the Wellington Region

The latest employment figures from Statistics New Zealand point to further buoyancy in the Wellington economy according to Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“The September 2006 quarter Household Labour Force Survey reveals a marked improvement in employment growth in the Wellington region”, said Chamber Chief Executive, Charles Finny.

“The survey shows that there were 31,100 jobs created in the Wellington region in the last 12 months. This compares with 31,200 for the country as a whole.

“This comes on the back of significant growth in Wellington’s working age population over the last year – the largest regional increase in terms of numbers and second only in percentage terms to Bay of Plenty.

“Wellington’s labour force participation rate of 70.2% is very high compared with the national average of only 68.0% (not seasonally adjusted).

“With an unemployment rate of 3.7%, Wellington’s is still marginally above the national rate of 3.6% (not seasonally adjusted) but this is unsurprising given the growth in its population and labour force participation.

“Our analysis suggests that in spite of a couple of prominent closures, new businesses starting up and a significant number of other enterprises taking on more people have driven the job growth.

“The figures are consistent with the Chamber’s latest business confidence survey which shows increasing employment intentions amongst businesses in the Wellington region.

“Wellington’s performance in the labour market relative to other economic indicators has let it down in recent times and so these latest employment figures are encouraging.

“However, much more needs to be done to both keep existing positions and bring new jobs to Wellington which is why the Wellington Regional Strategy, currently being put together by the region, is so important,” Mr Finny concluded.

ENDS

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