Business employment data: March 2023 quarter
Business employment data includes filled jobs and gross earnings, with breakdowns by industry, sex, age, region, and territorial authority area, using a combination of data from two different Inland Revenue sources: the employer monthly schedule (EMS) and payday filing. Both are associated with PAYE (pay as you earn) tax data.
Download data
Business employment data: March 2023 quarter
Excel spreadsheet, 87 KB
Business employment data: March 2023 quarter – CSV
ZIP compressed file, 164 KB
Business employment data: March 2023 quarter – industry revisions – CSV
Comma Separated Values, 17 KB
Business employment data: March 2023 quarter – regional council revisions – CSV
Comma Separated Values, 11 KB
Key facts
Total actual filled jobs in the March 2023 quarter were 2.26 million.
In the March 2023 quarter (compared with the December 2022 quarter):
- total seasonally adjusted filled jobs – up 1.1 percent (24,363 jobs).
For the year ended March 2023 compared with the year ended March 2022:
- total gross earnings – up 8.8 percent ($12.9 billion).
An annual comparison is used for earnings to account for payroll timing differences between quarters.
Filled jobs changes by industry
At an industry level, the largest changes in seasonally adjusted filled jobs compared with the December 2022 quarter were in:
- accommodation and food services – up 3.9 percent (5,708 jobs)
- administrative and support services – up 2.9 percent (2,964 jobs)
- health care and social assistance – up 1.1 percent (2,906 jobs)
- construction – up 0.9 percent (1,609 jobs).
Filled jobs changes by region
At a regional level, the largest changes in seasonally adjusted filled jobs compared with the December 2022 quarter were in:
- Auckland – up 1.3 percent (9,597 jobs)
- Canterbury – up 1.0 percent (2,932 jobs)
- Waikato – up 1.3 percent (2,907 jobs)
- Wellington – up 0.8 percent (1,952 jobs)
- Bay of Plenty – up 1.2 percent (1,621 jobs).
Regions impacted by severe weather during the March 2023 quarter had the following changes in seasonally adjusted filled jobs:
- Northland – up 1.5 percent (1,088 jobs)
- Hawke’s Bay – up 0.8 percent (615 jobs)
- Gisborne – down 0.7 percent (158 jobs).
Filled jobs and earnings are also available at the territorial authority level. This data is not seasonally adjusted. Details are available in the Excel file under Download data.
Filled jobs changes for men and women
In actual terms, from the March 2022 quarter to the March 2023 quarter, the number of filled jobs rose by 2.2 percent (23,811 jobs) for men and rose by 3.5 percent (37,871 jobs) for women.
Earnings by industry
In actual terms and at an industry level, the largest increases in total annual gross earnings for the year ended March 2023, compared with the year ended March 2022, were in:
- professional, scientific and technical services – up 13 percent ($1.9 billion)
- health care and social assistance – up 10 percent ($1.7 billion)
- construction – up 9.4 percent ($1.2 billion).
Methodology notes
Data update for September 2020 to December 2022 quarters
In the March 2023 quarter there has been an update to the way PAYE tax records are linked to businesses from the Stats NZ business register. The measures affected are filled jobs and earnings in the business employment data. This has meant revisions to previously published estimates for the September 2020 to December 2022 quarters. Totals at the national level have been revised upwards by about 1 percent on average. There is no impact on measures of change and estimates for quarters prior to September 2020. The table below shows the impact on total filled jobs in the business employment data.
Downloadable CSV files showing revisions to the business employment data for industry and regional council breakdowns are available under Download data.
|
Quarter |
Before revision |
After revision |
Percentage difference |
|
Sep-20 |
2,083,018 |
2,100,514 |
0.8 |
|
Dec-20 |
2,116,740 |
2,137,679 |
1.0 |
|
Mar-21 |
2,109,457 |
2,126,830 |
0.8 |
|
Jun-21 |
2,129,855 |
2,157,926 |
1.3 |
|
Sep-21 |
2,141,825 |
2,163,964 |
1.0 |
|
Dec-21 |
2,196,974 |
2,215,805 |
0.9 |
|
Mar-22 |
2,178,241 |
2,196,169 |
0.8 |
|
Jun-22 |
2,187,716 |
2,208,943 |
1.0 |
|
Sep-22 |
2,189,595 |
2,209,339 |
0.9 |
|
Dec-22 |
2,233,837 |
2,256,452 |
1.0 |
Seasonal adjustment
The series in this release are adjusted using direct seasonal adjustment. This means that the components and the total are seasonally adjusted individually, therefore the seasonally adjusted components will not add to the seasonally adjusted total.
We have noticed that the seasonal pattern for the education and training series appears to have changed, particularly for the March quarters. We are currently investigating the seasonality for this series but need further information or data points to confirm a change.
More data
Business employment data
Use Infoshare to view and download time-series data for:
Subject category: Industry sectors
Group: Business data collection – BDC
Tables:
- Age by employment variable (qrtly-Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec)
- Industry by employment variable (qrtly-Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec)
- Region by employment variable (qrtly-Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec)
- Sex by employment variable (qrtly-Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec)
- Territorial authority by employment variable (qrtly-Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec)
Note that due to a small portion of uncoded data, there will be small differences in the sum for filled jobs by region, age, sex, and the value for total New Zealand.
Definitions and metadata
Employment indicators – DataInfo+ provides general methodology and definitions relevant for employment statistics.
Media enquiries
Sandi Reily
021 285 9191
media@stats.govt.nz
Technical enquiries
Declan Tobin
04 931 4600
info@stats.govt.nz
ISSN 2744-3965
Next release
Business employment data: June 2023 quarter will be released on 7 September 2023.
