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This study aims to better understand the various labour market groups in New Zealand who want jobs or more hours of work, known as the underutilised workforce. The underutilised comprise three sub-groups: the underemployed, the unemployed and the potential labour force. The underemployed are further disaggregated into full-time and part-time workers. The former of these sub-groups are not traditionally included in official underutilisation statistics, but this research separates out this group to understand its characteristics and prevalence. This study analyses the composition and characteristics of the underutilised workforce, the likelihood of movement in and out of this group and the reasons for underemployment. It also presents findings on the earnings trajectories of underemployed workers relative to fully-utilised workers over the time period affected by [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 compared to before the pandemic.

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This paper is part of a project entitled 'The expression, experience and transcendence of low skills in Aotearoa New Zealand', which aims to provide policy recommendations to improve life-course trajectories and socio-economic outcomes of adults living with low literacy and/or numeracy (L+N) skills.

The paper examines conceptual and definitional issues and relevant aspects of the New Zealand (NZ) context, and provides a high level overview of existing evidence. It traces recent developments and debates in the measurement of skills and discusses the implications that arise from these debates in light of the unique bicultural context of NZ. It discusses what is meant by 'skill' and the related concept of competency and how these terms are associated with literacy and numeracy. It looks at how the OECD's Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) defines and measures skills. It also looks at the existing evidence on NZ's skill levels and patterns and the importance of skills to economic outcomes and wellbeing.

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This paper is part of a project entitled 'The expression, experience and transcendence of low skills in Aotearoa New Zealand', which aims to provide policy recommendations to improve life-course trajectories and socio-economic outcomes of adults living with low literacy and/or numeracy (L+N) skills.

The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive portrait of the population living with low literacy and/or numeracy (L/N) skills in New Zealand (NZ). Prior literature argues that 'low basic skills levels of adults are a complex policy problem' that does not have 'straightforward solutions'. This paper aims to provide the baseline with which to understand the complex nature and landscape of low L/N skills in NZ. The analysis links survey data from the 2014/2015 Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) with administrative data sources in Stats NZ's Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI). The goal is a better understanding of: (1) the population of interest; (2) their demographic, individual and household, labour market, health and justice characteristics; (3) how their characteristics in these domains compare to those who are not low L/N; and (4) how these portraits vary when disaggregated by age or by ethnicity.

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This paper is part of a project entitled 'The expression, experience and transcendence of low skills in Aotearoa New Zealand', which aims to provide policy recommendations to improve life-course trajectories and socio-economic outcomes of adults living with low literacy and/or numeracy (L+N) skills. The paper examines the life-course trajectories of a cohort of [New Zealand] NZ youth who participated in [Programme for International Student Assessment] PISA 2009 when they were 15-years old by using linked administrative data to track their outcomes until 2020. PISA is a worldwide study that assesses key competencies of 15-year-old students, with a focus on reading, mathematics and science. This paper compares the outcomes of the nearly one-fifth of NZ students who were assessed at below Level 2 in either reading or mathematics (or both), which the OECD considers to be a 'baseline' level of proficiency, with those at or above this baseline.

It finds that students with low measured skills have less favourable outcomes in a number of areas. They have lower rates of participation in, and completion of, further education. They also have lower employment rates and average earnings, with labour market differences between the low-skills and above-baseline groups being particularly stark among women. Those in the low-skills group also have higher rates of hospitalisation and non-admitted secondary care events, as well as higher rates of criminal offending and convictions. Outcomes for Maori in both the low-skills and above-baseline groups are less favourable than those of their NZ European counterparts. For example, Maori with above-baseline skills have similar average earnings to NZ Europeans in the low-skills group.

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There are substantial ethnic gaps in higher education in NZ, despite more than a decade of considerable policy effort aimed at this concern. This study uses newly linked administrative data to examine the underachievement of Maori and Pasifika relative to Europeans. We follow a population cohort born between 1990 and 1994 from school through to young adulthood to assess the relative contributions of prior academic performance, socioeconomic status and parental education to these gaps. Controlling for the relevant covariates narrows the Maori-European gap and completely eliminates the Pasifika-European gap in bachelor's degree participation rates. Utilising Fairlie decompositions, we find that school performance is by far the largest contributor to the ethnic gaps. Low socioeconomic status and parental education are also pertinent, but less important. Our results suggest that ethnic-based policies aimed at encouraging participation are likely to have a limited effect if used in isolation and signal the need for policy interventions earlier in the education system.

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This paper uses Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data linked to administrative data to track the educational and labour market outcomes of young people. Students with lower skills have lower rates of participation in further education. While men with low skills out-earn their higher-skilled counterparts when they are very young, their earnings are overtaken by those with higher skills when they are in their early twenties and earn around 15 per cent less by the age of 25. The differences among women are substantially larger - women with low skills earn about 35 per cent less than their higher-skilled counterparts by age 25.

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This paper is part of a project entitled 'The expression, experience and transcendence of low skills in Aotearoa New Zealand', which aims to provide policy recommendations to improve life-course trajectories and socio-economic outcomes of adults living with low literacy and/or numeracy (L+N) skills. The paper examines the life-course trajectories of [New Zealand] NZ adults across different skill levels in literacy and numeracy. This is done by using skill information collected in a [Programme of International Assessment of Adult Competencies] PIAAC survey of the working-age adult population (aged 16-65 years). This sample is then linked with administrative data to track their life-course outcomes over the period of 2000 to 2020. The outcomes of the one-fifth of NZ working-age adults who were assessed at below Level 2 in either literacy or numeracy (or both) are compared with those at or above this baseline.

It finds that adults with low measured skills have less favourable outcomes in a number of areas. They have lower rates of educational attainment, lower employment rates and average earnings, higher rates of hospitalisation, and higher rates of criminal offending and convictions. In addition, outcomes for Maori and Pacific Peoples in both the low-skills and above-baseline groups are generally less favourable than those of their NZ European counterparts. For example, even among those with above-baseline skills, Maori and Pacific Peoples have lower average earnings than NZ Europeans. These findings are consistent with a companion paper (Meehan, Pacheco, and Schober, 2022) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 150.247] that follows the outcomes of 15-year-old students with low reading and mathematics skills through young adulthood. These results provide a quantifiable evidence base regarding the role of literacy and numeracy skills with respect to a range of well-being outcomes over the course of an individual's life.

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