Māori women took hit in first wave of Covid-19 job losses, Stats NZ data shows

Friday, 21 August 2020

Tourism, hospitality and retail businesses have been most affected by lockdowns and the closed borders.

Covid-19’s blow to the tourism sector has disproportionately affected Māori women’s jobs, new data shows.

Statistics NZ data shows the number of women working in key tourism industries dropped 8 per cent in the June quarter, compared to the same time a year earlier.

The number of Māori women employed in tourism industries was down by 20.5 per cent, or 4000 people.

Total tourism hours worked dropped 32.7 per cent, year-on-year.

“Key tourism industries include accommodation, passenger transport, travel agencies, sightseeing operators, and cafes and restaurants. These industries were hit hard by the Covid-19 lockdown in April, following the border closure to international tourists in late March,” labour market statistics manager Andrew Neal said.

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“Tourism is more prone to fluctuations in hours worked, but the 32.7 per cent drop in the June 2020 quarter is a record low and four times larger than the next worst fall. This shows how much the lockdown and ongoing Covid-19 impacts have disproportionately impacted tourism industries.”

The lockdown restrictions affected non-tourism industries as well but to a lesser extent – hours worked decreased 6.9 per cent in the June 2020 quarter compared with the June 2019 quarter.

Workers in tourism industries received $844 (including any wage subsidies) a week in the June 2020 quarter – $76 less per week on average, than in the June 2019 quarter. Meanwhile, earnings remained flat at $1280 over the year for workers in non-tourism industries.

Nearly 90 per cent of tourism businesses had received the wage subsidy by May 20, Stats NZ said.

Overall, the female unemployment rate for the June quarter rose to 4.4 per cent while it fell to 3.6 per cent for men. People who want to work but can't find a job – the underutilisation rate – jumped to 14.9 per cent for women from 12.7 per cent.

NZIER principal economist Christina Leung said women had been disproportionately affected by Covid-19 related job losses so far because women were employed in large numbers in tourism, retail and hospitality, which were the most affected sectors.

“The recent re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community means border restrictions are likely to remain in place for quite some time, which means tourism activity will be slow to recover. This will continue to have a disproportionate impact on women in the labour market.”

Brad Olsen, a senior economist at Infometrics, said it would mean a different approach was needed to combat job losses in this downturn, compared to previous recessions.

“The decline in female employment generally, alongside the specific decline in female employment in tourism, means that we need to design a different, and varied, range of supports for employment across the New Zealand economy. Some areas that are easier to stimulate, like construction with shovel-ready projects, will not have as much impact on support female employment.

“Although the number of job losses continue to mount, the immediate data available shows that young people and women are taking the largest hits to employment.”

Another economist, Shamubeel Eaqub said there was now an indication that industries dominated by men were “catching up”.