Employment indicators provide an early indication of changes in the labour market.
Key facts
Changes in the seasonally adjusted filled jobs for the May 2026 month (compared with the April 2026 month) were:
- all industries – up 0.3 percent (7,678 jobs) to 2.35 million filled jobs
- primary industries – flat (down 25 jobs)
- goods-producing industries – up 0.1 percent (602 jobs)
- service industries – up 0.4 percent (6,980 jobs).
| Month | Percentage change |
| May-23 | 0.16 |
| Jun-23 | 0.26 |
| Jul-23 | 0.21 |
| Aug-23 | -0.01 |
| Sept-23 | 0.11 |
| Oct-23 | 0.46 |
| Nov-23 | -0.34 |
| Dec-23 | 0.02 |
| Jan-24 | 0.13 |
| Feb-24 | 0.01 |
| Mar-24 | 0.05 |
| Apr-24 | -0.09 |
| May-24 | -0.4 |
| Jun-24 | -0.37 |
| Jul-24 | -0.25 |
| Aug-24 | -0.15 |
| Sept-24 | -0.14 |
| Oct-24 | -0.18 |
| Nov-24 | -0.03 |
| Dec-24 | -0.09 |
| Jan-25 | -0.02 |
| Feb-25 | -0.08 |
| Mar-25 | -0.09 |
| Apr-25 | -0.18 |
| May-25 | -0.19 |
| Jun-25 | 0.02 |
| Jul-25 | -0.03 |
| Aug-25 | 0.01 |
| Sept-25 | 0.11 |
| Oct-25 | -0.2 |
| Nov-25 | 0.51 |
| Dec-25 | -0.28 |
| Jan-26 | 0.14 |
| Feb-26 | -0.03 |
| Mar-26 | 0.15 |
| Apr-26 | -0.08 |
| May-26 | 0.33 |
More data
Use Infoshare to view and download time-series data for:
Employment indicators
Subject category: Work, income, and spending
Group: Employment indicators – MEI
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.
Employment indicators concepts – DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release.
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Technical enquiries
Employment indicators team
[email protected]
04 931 4600
Next release
Employment indicators: June 2026 will be released on 28 July 2026.
