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.
Key facts
Total actual filled jobs in the June 2026 quarter were 2.27 million.
In the June 2026 quarter, compared with the March 2026 quarter:
- total seasonally adjusted filled jobs were up 0.1 percent (1,291 jobs).
For the year ended June 2026, compared with the year ended June 2025:
- total gross earnings were up 3.0 percent ($5.3 billion).
An annual comparison is used for earnings to account for payroll timing differences between quarters.
| Quarter | Change (%) |
| Jun-20 | -1.07 |
| Sep-20 | 0.81 |
| Dec-20 | -0.05 |
| Mar-21 | 0.41 |
| Jun-21 | 1.12 |
| Sep-21 | 1.47 |
| Dec-21 | 0.61 |
| Mar-22 | 0.02 |
| Jun-22 | 0.27 |
| Sep-22 | 1.16 |
| Dec-22 | 0.4 |
| Mar-23 | 0.92 |
| Jun-23 | 1.14 |
| Sep-23 | 0.53 |
| Dec-23 | 0.28 |
| Mar-24 | 0.01 |
| Jun-24 | -0.42 |
| Sep-24 | -0.72 |
| Dec-24 | -0.42 |
| Mar-25 | -0.2 |
| Jun-25 | -0.39 |
| Sep-25 | 0.05 |
| Dec-25 | 0.07 |
| Mar-26 | 0.11 |
| Jun-26 | 0.06 |
Filled jobs changes by industry
At an industry level, the largest changes in seasonally adjusted filled jobs in the June 2026 quarter, compared with the March 2026 quarter, were in:
- financial and insurance services - up 3.1 percent (2,194 jobs)
- health care and social assistance - up 0.7 percent (2,030 jobs)
- administrative and support services - down 1.4 percent (1,360 jobs)
- construction - up 0.5 percent (907 jobs)
- manufacturing - down 0.4 percent (877 jobs).
Filled jobs changes by region
At a regional level, the largest changes in seasonally adjusted filled jobs in the June 2026 quarter, compared with the March 2026 quarter, were in:
- Canterbury - up 0.5 percent (1,424 jobs)
- Auckland - up 0.1 percent (522 jobs)
- Hawke's Bay - down 0.6 percent (437 jobs)
- Northland - down 0.5 percent (360 jobs)
- Wellington - down 0.1 percent (208 jobs).
Filled jobs changes for men and women
In actual terms, from the June 2025 quarter to the June 2026 quarter, the number of filled jobs rose by 0.1 percent (1,268 jobs) for men and rose by 0.5 percent (5,148 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 June 2026, compared with the year ended June 2025, were in:
- health care and social assistance - up 4.0 percent ($926 million)
- public administration and safety - up 5.6 percent ($917 million)
- education and training - up 3.2 percent ($461 million).
Gross earnings
Gross earnings correspond to the amount paid to all employees in the reference quarter. They exclude retirement payments, redundancy payments, and employee benefits. The length of an employee's pay period can cause variability in the number of pay days in the quarter - for example, a fortnightly pay normally occurs twice a month but, on some occasions, can occur three times a month. This can cause volatility in the monthly series.
More data
Employment indicators
Use Infoshare to view and download time-series data for:
Subject category: Industry sectors
Group: Business data collection - BDC
Note that due to a small portion of uncoded data, there will be small differences in the sums 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.
Employment indicators concepts - DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release.
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Technical enquiries
Economic indicators team
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ISSN 2744-3965
Next release
Business employment data: September 2026 quarter will be released on 8 December 2026.
