Gross labour market flows in New Zealand: Some questions and answers

Abstract

Data on the flow of workers moving between employment, unemployment and non-participation provide some of the most interesting and useful insights into labour market outcomes. These insights include information on the number and probability of workers moving between labour market states from, say, unemployment to employment. Despite the usefulness of labour flows data, New Zealand’s official gross flows statistics are relatively neglected and almost entirely unused in published public and private sector commentaries, forecasting, modelling activities and policy debates. Using a framework of questions and answers, this paper considers selected aspects of New Zealand’s gross labour flows data as well as international comparisons.