Unemployment rate by highest qualification

Why This Is Important

The success of an education system is manifested in, among other things, the success of individuals in finding sustainable employment. There is a substantial body of evidence that shows that those with higher levels of education are more likely to participate in the labour market, face lower risks of unemployment, as well as having greater access to further training and receive higher earnings on average. These labour market advantages are an important outcome of education. They may even be the primary economic and social outcome, because earned income enables people to achieve a higher standard of living and many of the other individual and national outcomes associated with education may accrue either directly or indirectly from this.

This indicator shows the relative unemployment chances associated with extra education. Movements in the relative measures of employment can reflect changes in the relative labour market value of particular skills and levels of education, and changes in the skill requirements of the overall economy. The increasing labour market demand for young people with upper secondary and tertiary education qualifications foreshadows an increasing risk of exclusion for those individuals with lower attainment.

International data suggest that on average across the OECD, tertiary education more than halves the expected period of unemployment over a working life.

Indicator

Numerator: (Data Source: Statistics New Zealand: Quarterly Household Labour Force Survey)
Total number of respondents from Statistics New Zealand's Quarterly Household Labour Force Surveys who were unemployed.

Denominator: (Data Source: Statistics New Zealand: Quarterly Household Labour Force Survey)
Total number of respondents from Statistics New Zealand's Quarterly Household Labour Force Surveys.

Interpretation Issues

As there are consistent differences in labour market conditions for the genders and different age cohorts, these should be given specific attention. Ideally, the labour market effects of education need to be considered not just at one point in time, but over the whole lifecycle, and alongside other factors which impact on employment. New Zealand unemployment rates by qualifications are shown here, as recent estimates of unemployment expectancy over a whole working lifetime are not available.

Data for this indicator were obtained from sample surveys, and will contain both sampling and non-sampling errors. Sampling error is a measure of the variability that occurs by chance because a sample rather than an entire population is surveyed. Non-sampling errors include errors arising from biases in the patterns of response and non-response, inaccuracies in reporting by respondents, including inaccuracies as a result of proxy interviewing, and errors in the recording and coding of data.

The Household Labour Force Survey does not measure the quality of people's jobs, for example, whether they work in casual jobs, how much they are paid, whether they get sick leave, etc.

There are also sometimes complaints about the definitions used in the Household Labour Force Survey (that is, to be counted as employed you only have to have worked for one hour or more in a week, or you can even work unpaid in a family business. And to be unemployed you have to be available to start a job and be actively seeking work - not just looking in newspapers).