Women are still significantly worse off in the labour market compared to men, in terms of unemployment, despite yesterday's surprise drop in the unemployment rate.
According to Stats NZ, New Zealand's unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 per cent in the December 2020 quarter, down from 5.3 per cent in the September 2020 quarter.
That drop is being attributed to a large surge in people employed in construction - a strongly male-dominated industry - which is making up for job losses in media and tourism.
Between March and September last year, the number of people with jobs fell by 31,000, and two thirds of those were women.
As of the December quarter, about 10,000 fewer people were out of work, but there were still about 25,000 people out of work in total, and 15,000 of those are women - 60 per cent of the total.
Women are more dominant in the part-time work space, and many of those roles were more likely to be affected by the economic impacts of Covid-19.
Overall, the unemployment rate for women in New Zealand is 5.4 per cent, compared to men at 4.5 per cent.
Mahima Sud was made redundant during 2020, and despite applying to up to five jobs per day and attending numerous interviews, is yet to find a new role.
"I want to be employed and I want to contribute and I want to be productive - it has been incredibly hard," Sud said.
"I do see a lot of job openings out there and I've been relentlessly applying to them and I do actually get a lot of calls and a lot of interviews, but somehow I just haven't made the cut."
Julia Liu was employed at SkyCity for 20 years before being made redundant last year, and started off by volunteering for trade union Unite, before being offered a permanent role there.
She said the new role was "a good gift for me", and that she considered herself one of the lucky ones.
Liu is now working to improve employment conditions for migrant workers.
"When they lose their hours, when they lose their job, they face financial hardship - and at the same time they've got a mental sickness as well, because they don't know what the next step is."
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