Descriptions
Title: New Zealand housing market and its impact on labour mobility
Geographic labour mobility is an important element of a well-functioning labour market. Workers often respond to market signals and move to regions with better job opportunities and/or amenities. However, geographic mobility rates have been declining in a number of advanced economies. For example, the share of American residents who moved in the past year dropped from 19% in 1986 to just below 10% in 2019. Similarly, the proportion of people changing residence at least once in a ten-year period reduced from 55% in 1971-81 to 45% in 2001-2011 in the UK. Housing affordability is identified as one of the key constraining factors.
In this study, the primary data source is the Employer Monthly Schedule (EMS), administrative data that allows researchers to track workers’ job information and locations over time. All analyses are calculated on an annual basis from March 2000 to March 2021 across 16 regional councils. The results highlight three key findings: 1) the geographic mobility rate in New Zealand is stable at 5%, 2) higher house prices act as a pushing factor, which forces workers to find jobs elsewhere, and 3) workers who relocate from large to small regions experienced a significant loss in incomes. These results also moderately change among different sub-working-age populations.
Bio of the presenter: Guanyu Zheng (aka Fish) is a principal analyst at the evidence and insights team at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Guanyu is an economist with over fifteen years of experience in economic research using Statistics New Zealand’s micro-data (Longitudinal Business Database and Integrated Data Infrastructure) and published working papers covering business dynamics, technology diffusion and labour market dynamics. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Sciences with distinction and is currently working towards a Master of Philosophy in Economics at Auckland University of Technology.
