March has sped past, with a number of important topics in focus for the Infometrics team. Analysis of inflation, Omicron, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are key topics of discussion at present and are informing our thinking as we prepare our next forecasts (available in April) and assessment of the economy. This month our articles cover a wide selection of insights from our team.
First up is Principal Economist Brad Olsen with an examination of current migration trends, the current net migration outflow, and why we might face a brain-drain.
Senior Economist Nick Brunsdon looks at New Zealand’s current labour market challenges and argues that our changing population will place continual pressure on the jobs market.
Brad’s analysed some of the data published about New Zealand’s LGBT+ community, after the first release of data by Stats NZ last year.
And finally, Economist Andrew Beattie takes at look at oil prices for our Chart of the Month.
New Zealand’s population growth in the December quarter was 0.5%pa, having slipped as low as 0.4%pa in September last year, the slowest rate of growth since about 1989.
Labour market pressures have become acute over the past year in New Zealand, as the economy rebounded from the onset of COVID-19, and businesses adapted to operating without the previously plentiful supply of migrant workers. However, this pressure is not a fleeting challenge.
For the first time, Stats NZ has been able to produce detailed and statistically robust estimates of counts and outcomes of New Zealand’s rainbow community.
Fuel prices have shot up in recent weeks after tough sanctions were imposed on Russian oil and gas companies and their exports by a large suite of countries.
