Celebrated on the fourth Monday in October, Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day. The first Labour Day in New Zealand was celebrated on 28 October 1890, when several thousand trade union members and supporters attended parades in the main centres.
Work structures daily life, influencing when people eat, what they wear, how they take 'time out'. While work is usually regarded as a task undertaken for pay outside the home, unpaid work (often by women) in the house, on the farm or in the community also makes a major contribution to the lives of individuals and to the economy.
Graph of figures taken from the death certificates of British and Irish immigrants to New Zealand (which include information on the father's occupation).
