Reasons for not wanting to seek work for people who are not in the New Zealand labour force
By sex, excluding people who have not specified reasons, 2026 Q2, thousands of people
| Sex | Reason for not wanting to seek work | Thousands of people |
|---|---|---|
| Male | Retired | 267.1 |
| Male | Studying or training | 73.2 |
| Male | Don't need to work | 5.0 |
| Male | Own sickness / illness / injury / disability | 61.1 |
| Male | Looking after children | 6.7 |
| Male | Looking after others | 4.6 |
| Male | Other | 5.4 |
| Male | COVID-19 related reasons | None |
| Female | Retired | 351.2 |
| Female | Studying or training | 74.8 |
| Female | Don't need to work | 17.5 |
| Female | Own sickness / illness / injury / disability | 64.7 |
| Female | Looking after children | 66.9 |
| Female | Looking after others | 14.4 |
| Female | Other | 6.2 |
| Female | COVID-19 related reasons | None |
Definitions
NEET (not in employment, education, or training): Young people who are unemployed (part of the labour force) and not engaged in education or training, and those not in the labour force and not engaged in education or training for many reasons.
NEET rate: The total number of youth who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), as a proportion of the youth working-age population.
Data calculation/treatment
Due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 in the June and September 2020 quarters, several seasonally adjusted series were specially treated to maintain a consistent estimate of the seasonal pattern.
Changes to data collection/processing
This release incorporates revisions to historical household labour force survey data to account for the latest national population estimates. As such, figures published in this update may differ from those previously published.
Data provided by
Dataset name
Household Labour Force Survey: Youth Labour Force and Education Status by Total Resp Ethnic Group by Sex (Annual-Dec) June 2026
Webpage:
http://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/
How to find the data
At URL provided, select 'Work income and spending > Household Labour Force Survey - HLF > Youth Labour Force and Education Status by Total Resp Ethnic Group by Sex (Annual-Dec)'. All variables were selected to crete this dataset.
Import & extraction details
File as imported: Household Labour Force Survey: Youth Labour Force and Education Status by Total Resp Ethnic Group by Sex (Annual-Dec) June 2026
From the dataset Household Labour Force Survey: Youth Labour Force and Education Status by Total Resp Ethnic Group by Sex (Annual-Dec) June 2026, this data was extracted:
- Rows: 4-44
- Columns: 2-61
- Provided: 1,230 data points
This data forms the table Labour Force - Reason for not wanting to seek work for people not in labour force by sex 2016 Q2–2026 Q2.
Dataset originally released on:
August 05, 2026
Purpose of collection
The primary purpose of the survey is to estimate the number of people employed, unemployed, and not in the labour force (NILF), and from them, the unemployment rate for the New Zealand labour market. The Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) is designed to produce statistics at the family level, and use of the survey for a purpose for which it was not designed is inevitably subject to some limitations.