Unemployment Dynamics in New Zealand

In this paper we analyse the experiences of the unemployed by looking at what happened to groups of job seekers over a four year period. In particular, we focus on job seekers who either registered as unemployed with the New Zealand Employment Service in 1993, or left the unemployment register in 1993. Overall, our analysis showed that there was considerable variation in how individuals experienced unemployment. For a quarter of job seekers, unemployment was a singular and relatively brief experience. However by way of contrast, a quarter of job seekers also experienced chronic unemployment often in repeated spells. In addition, unemployment experiences tended to vary for different social groups and across time with the economic cycle.