Job total falls to 1.15 million

Press, 3 February 1984, Page 3

Job total falls to 1.15 million

Wellington reporter

The number of jobs in New Zealand fell by 4488 (0.4 per cent) to 1,115,249 in the year ended November, 1983, according to the Quarterly Employment Survey. This compared with a 0.1 per cent increase in the year to November, 1982. The Secretary of Labour, Mr G. L. Jackson, said employment had grown 1.5 per cent (16,402 jobs) in the September-November quarter, compared with an 0.5 per cent increase (5984 jobs) in the same quarter in 1982. The survey covers fulltime and part-time em-

ployees, as well as working proprietors outside agriculture.

During the survey year to November, the number of full-time jobs fell 1.1 per cent (9540), to 858,681.

But increases were recorded in the number of part-time employees, up 2.1 per cent (3530) to 168,880, and of working proprietors, up 1.8 per cent (1522) to 87,688.

The November quarter saw an increase of 1.4 per cent in the number of fulltime employees, compared with an increase of 0.2 per cent in the 1982 November quarter. There was an increase of 2.3 per cent in the number of part-time employees in the November quarter. Average ordinary time weekly hours worked between November, 1982, and November, 1983, showed no increase, remaining at 37.0 hours.

For the survey pay week, average ordinary time weekly earnings before tax stood at $274.49, $301.73 for men and $231.92 for women. The annual increase in

average ordinary time weekly earnings was 2.2 per cent for the year, compared with an 11.0 per cent increase for the November, 1982, year.

An increase of more than 16,000 jobs in the last three months was welcomed by the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger. Taken together the August and November quarterly surveys confirmed a strengthening demand for labour since mid-1983, he said.

It was also pleasing that the greater part of the growth was in the private sector.

In the private sector there had been an increase of 15,150 (2.0 per cent) since August, a clear indication that employers were confident that the economy was picking up. Mr Bolger said that since the heavy fall in employment from November, 1982, to February, 1983, the labour market was now recovering.

The Opposition’s employment spokesman, Mr P. Neilson (Miramar), said nearly 14,000 full-time jobs had disappeared in two years since the National Government promised the “Think Big” growth strategy would create 410,000 jobs.

“There can have been fewer more fraudulent electoral claims made than the 410,000 jobs that dominated the National Party campaign in 1981,” he said. Mr G. T. Knapp (Socred, East Coast Bays) said that the results of the survey showed that average incomes since the imposition

of the freeze in June, 1982, had remained virtually static.

Since May, 1983, average ordinary time weekly earnings had fallen 1 per cent while employment had risen 0.5 per cent, he said.