State Highway 16 full of slow moving morning traffic as the sun rises.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Phil Schultz is 81 and still working 24 hours a week – plus more if it’s needed.
He drives a shuttle from Whangārei to Auckland.
It’s a job he’s held for the past couple of years. Before that, he was an operator on the city’s Te Matau ā Pohe lift bridge for nine years.
“I’ve been in transport most of my life, either driving or owning businesses, and the main reason I had a change I suppose is the bridge shift involved every second weekend working and I just wanted more weekend time for family.
“They were having trouble finding someone to do this job from Whangārei to Auckland – not many people want to drive in Auckland these days but having been driving most of my working life, going to Auckland every day doesn’t bother me.”
He said he had retired twice but got a bit bored. “I do have expensive hobbies so I need to keep working to keep the money coming in. I’ve got a few classic cars …only about seven of them.”
He said he kept saying he was to retire properly next year. “But I don’t know which year is next year. I enjoy working and I like I said, I need the money for my hobby and while I’m still fit enough and able to do the job, I can’t see why I shouldn’t keep working really.”
Stats NZ data shows that people are joining the workforce earlier and working later.
“Compared with previous censuses, teenagers were more likely to be in the workforce in 2023,” 2023 Census spokesperson Rosemary Goodyear said. “There was also a steady increase in employment for those aged 65 years and over.”
In 2023, 65.7 percent of people aged 15 to 29 years were employed, up from 56.6 percent in 2013. Teenagers in the 15 to 19-year age group contributed the most to this increase.
Of all people aged 15 to 19 years, 45.1 percent were employed in full-time or part-time work in 2023, compared with 33.7 percent in 2013 and 40.7 percent in 2018.
“Employment increased across all ages between 2013 and 2018 as the labour market recovered from the Global Financial Crisis,” Goodyear said.
“However, for teenagers there was another increase in employment between 2018 and 2023, leading to larger growth over the decade compared with other age groups.
“Other sources of labour market data, like Stats NZ’s Household Labour Force Survey and administrative employment indicators, captured particularly strong employment for people aged 15 to 29 years across 2022 and 2023. This 2023 spike in employment for young people was likely linked to the low unemployment rate at the time, and the high unmet demand for labour following Covid-19 migration restrictions.”
Marlborough had the highest proportion of 15 to 29-year-olds in the workforce of any region, at 75 percent.
Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said young people had been disproportionately affected by the rise in unemployment in recent years.
“Particularly those under 20 but even ito the early 20s as well.”
He said younger people sometimes had fewer skills and experience so were the workers who were dropped first.
He said it was a trend that was likely to turn around when the labour market improved, but that was not likely until at least the end of this year.
At the other end of the age scale, 24.1 percent of people aged over 65 were in work, up from 22.1 percent in 2013.
The biggest increase was among people aged 70 to 74.
“There are several factors which may be contributing to this trend, including better health, longer life expectancy, and financial pressures surrounding retirement,” Goodyer said.
Men were more likely to be part of the workforce, but the gender divide was narrowing over time.
