Jobs and hours worked fall in March quarter as recession drags on

The Quarterly Employment Survey by Statistics New Zealand showed that demand for labour continued to weaken in the March quarter, following a decline in last quarter of 2008. Slowdowns in the manufacturing and construction industries were leading factors in the number of full time equivalent employees (FTE's) falling 1.7% in the March quarter from the same quarter in 2008, Stats NZ said. In the March 2009 quarter, FTE's, filled jobs and seasonally adjusted paid hours fell from the year before. This followed falls in all three on an annual basis in the December 2008 quarter, the survey showed. The amount of filled jobs fell 1.1% and total paid hours fell 1.9%, its largest annual decrease since the year to March 1992, Stats NZ said. The latest figures paint yet another grim picture for GDP in the March quarter, and throughout 2009 and into 2010. They follow the latest NZIER Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion, which suggested GDP figures in the March quarter will be worse than the 0.9% contraction seen in the December quarter. Seasonally adjusted annual gross earnings rose by 3.3% in the quarter from March 2008. However annual growth in earnings declined steadily over 2008, from 7.5% in the year to March 2008. From the December quarter, the amount of FTE's fell 2.0% and the number of filled jobs fell 2.6%. However these falls were largely due to seasonal decreases of employees in the education industry, due to issues regarding school holidays falling during the Survey's reference period, Stats NZ said.