Job growth slowed in the year to March 2008
The number of filled jobs increased 2.1 percent to reach 1,816,220 in the March 2008 year, Statistics New
Zealand said today. This percentage increase is the smallest recorded for a March year since the Linked
Employer-Employee Data (LEED) series began in June 1999. However, the percentage increase in average
mean quarterly earnings was the highest for a March year since the series began. Average mean quarterly
earnings increased to $11,320 in the year to March 2008, up 5.3 percent from the March 2007 year. This
growth was due to increases in average mean quarterly earnings across all industries.
Taranaki had the highest percentage mean quarterly earnings growth of all regions in the March 2008 year,
increasing 6.3 percent to $10,830. Taranaki also had the second highest percentage growth in the number
of filled jobs with 3.0 percent in the March 2008 year, after Bay of Plenty with 3.3 percent.
The manufacturing industry recorded its third consecutive decrease in the number of filled jobs, dropping
0.7 percent (1,550 filled jobs) in the March 2008 year. The total decrease from the March 2005 year to the
March 2008 year was 2.9 percent (6,780 filled jobs). The manufacturing industry remained the biggest
employer, however, with 226,420 filled jobs (12.5 percent of all filled jobs) in the March 2008 year.
The LEED quarterly series is published with a lag of four quarters and uses information from existing
taxation and Statistics New Zealand sources to provide a range of information on the dynamics of the New
Zealand labour market. The large size of the dataset allows breakdowns by age, sex, industry, sector, firm
size, region, and territorial authority. These breakdowns are available on Infoshare and Table Builder on the
Statistics New Zealand website. For more information of LEED, see the Guide to Interpreting LEED Data.
Geoff Bascand
Government Statistician
22 May 2009
END
See also the Hot Off The Press information release Linked Employer-Employee Data: March 2008 quarter.