6:37 am today
School leavers in some of the country's poorest and smallest districts face a near impossible battle to find work or training places, with unemployment among 15- to 24-year-olds jumping dramatically in those regions in the last year.
Youth unemployment is soaring and at nearly 15 percent, it is roughly three times that of the wider working age population - which is at a near nine-year high.
But fresh analysis of quarterly statistics by data analytics consultancy Dot Loves Data found that, in the 12 months to March 2026, many regions saw the number of 15- to 24-year-olds who are Not in Employment, Education, or Training - known as NEETs - jump by more than a third. In some areas the NEET rate almost doubled.
Ōpōtiki District has the highest youth NEET rate in New Zealand at 42.8 percent, (up 42 percent from March 2025), followed by Kawerau District at 39.5 percent (up 28 percent). Westland saw its NEET rates increase by a staggering 134 percent (to 20.1 percent) while Grey District sits at 19 percent up from nine percent (a 109 percent rise).
