ABSTRACT
Table 1.6 also decomposes the unemployment rates by gender, age and region of origin. Women have higher unemployment rates in both countries. The differences are not as large as one might expect though, considering that women are often tied movers who are not screened independently as economic migrants. The age-unemployment patterns are opposite in the two countries: u-shaped (with a low between 25-34) in Australia and inverse u-shaped (with a high between 35-54) in New Zealand. The inverse u-shape in New Zealand is unusual, and it contrasts with the pattern in the New Zealand-born population. Finally, as expected, the table reveals substantial region-of-origin effects: unemployment rates are lowest for Europe-born immigrants and highest for Asian-born immigrants. This discrepancy could be an expression of the “Englishlanguage” effect, or capture cultural or some other differences.
