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 March 2026 quarter were 2.26 million.
In the March 2026 quarter, compared with the December 2025 quarter:
- total seasonally adjusted filled jobs were up 0.1 percent (2,452 jobs).
For the year ended March 2026, compared with the year ended March 2025:
- total gross earnings were up 2.7 percent ($4.8 billion).
An annual comparison is used for earnings to account for payroll timing differences between quarters.
| Quarter | Change (%) |
| Mar-20 | 0.44 |
| Jun-20 | -1.07 |
| Sept-20 | 0.81 |
| Dec-20 | -0.05 |
| Mar-21 | 0.41 |
| Jun-21 | 1.12 |
| Sept-21 | 1.47 |
| Dec-21 | 0.61 |
| Mar-22 | 0.02 |
| Jun-22 | 0.27 |
| Sept-22 | 1.15 |
| Dec-22 | 0.4 |
| Mar-23 | 0.93 |
| Jun-23 | 1.15 |
| Sept-23 | 0.53 |
| Dec-23 | 0.28 |
| Mar-24 | 0.01 |
| Jun-24 | -0.42 |
| Sept-24 | -0.72 |
| Dec-24 | -0.42 |
| Mar-25 | -0.2 |
| Jun-25 | -0.39 |
| Sept-25 | 0.05 |
| Dec-25 | 0.07 |
| Mar-26 | 0.11 |
Filled jobs changes by industry
At an industry level, the largest changes in seasonally adjusted filled jobs in the March 2026 quarter, compared with the December 2025 quarter, were in:
- transport, postal and warehousing – up 0.9 percent (834 jobs)
- education and training – up 0.3 percent (728 jobs)
- public administration and safety – up 0.4 percent (682 jobs)
- professional, scientific and technical services – down 0.3 percent (600 jobs)
- manufacturing – down 0.3 percent (598 jobs).
Filled jobs changes by region
At a regional level, the largest changes in seasonally adjusted filled jobs in the March 2026 quarter, compared with the December 2025 quarter, were in:
- Canterbury – up 0.5 percent (1,507 jobs)
- Waikato – up 0.5 percent (1,042 jobs)
- Northland – down 0.6 percent (432 jobs)
- Bay of Plenty – down 0.2 percent (307 jobs)
- Manawatū-Whanganui – up 0.2 percent (265 jobs).
Filled jobs changes for men and women
In actual terms, from the March 2025 quarter to the March 2026 quarter, the number of filled jobs fell by 0.3 percent (3,746 jobs) for men and rose by 0.1 percent (1,035 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 2026, compared with the year ended March 2025, were in:
- health care and social assistance – up 4.7 percent ($1.1 billion)
- education and training – up 6.6 percent ($943 million)
- public administration and safety – up 3.7 percent ($608 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.
Technical enquiries
Economic indicators team
[email protected]
04 931 4600
ISSN 2744-3965
Next release
Business employment data: June 2026 quarter will be released on 8 September 2026.
