Reporting on the Older Workers Employment Action Plan
This plan supports the Government’s Employment Strategy, which presents the Government’s vision for the labour market and the changes it is implementing to improve employment outcomes for all New Zealanders.
The plan also complements the Better Later Life Strategy and Action Plan, led by the Office for Seniors.
Read the Older Workers Employment Action Plan
Indicators
The following indicators have been selected to show current labour market outcomes for older workers who might be impacted by the plan. While these reflect older workers’ position in the labour market compared to the general population, it’s not possible to draw a causal link to actions under the OWEAP as there are many other factors at play.
Note that data relating to unemployment and underutilisation is based on a survey of 15,000 households (from the Household Labour Force Survey), which comes with sampling errors. As the size of the sampled group decreases, the relative sampling errors will generally increase. For example, the estimated number of employed Pacific peoples would have a larger relative sampling error than the estimated total number of people employed.
These indicators will be updated on a yearly basis.
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Total 50+ unemployment rate change from last year |
Total 50+ underutilisation rate change from last year |
Change in 50 – 64 JS-WR recipients from last year |
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Decreasing -0.3 percentage points (2.1% to 1.8%) |
Decreasing -0.9 percentage points (8% to 6.1%) |
Decreasing -0.1 percentage points (2.6% to 2.5%) |
Figure 1 –Pacific people and Māori aged 50+ have the highest rates of unemployment in their age cohort, while females 50+ have a higher unemployment rate compared to males 50+ years.
Figure 2 – All groups have seen a decrease in unemployment rates between June 2021 and June 2022 except for European people aged 50+ who saw an increase in unemployment, and women aged 50+ who saw no change. The groups with the largest decreases in unemployment rates were Māori, Asian/MELAA/Other and Pacific people aged 50+.
Figure 3 – Older workers aged 50+ generally have lower rates of underutilisation than the average rate for workers of all ages, with the exception of Māori and women aged 50+ who have a higher underutilisation rate than older workers.
Figure 4 – Underutilisation rates have decreased for all groups in the year from June 2021 to June 2022, with the highest drops in underutilisation for Māori, Asian/MELAA/Other and Pacific peoples aged 50+.
Figure 5 – Older workers receive Jobseeker Support – Work Ready at a lower rate than the general population. However, the drop from last year for older workers has been lower.
Reporting
MSD prepares quarterly monitoring and implementation tables reporting progress on the OWEP.
