This is our experimental section. The employment stocks and flows series (ESFS) are not official statistics, and we advise caution when using the data.
To request data covering the previous period May 2019-October 2023, refer to Enquiries.
This experimental dataset uses tax data to produce a monthly labour market series that shows:
- the total number of people in paid employment in a given time period (excluding those self-employed)
- how many people in a given time period transitioned between primary income sources (eg changed from one job to another, shifted to/from a benefit or superannuation) as their main income source.
Unlike traditional labour market measures which are typically on a net basis (eg the number of people employed), ESFS breaks these down into their previous and current labour market states. These can be further analysed from a region, age band, sex, and industry perspective.
The ESFS counts people, rather than filled jobs, and links employers and employees to determine job transitions. It uses all income sources from Inland Revenue tax data encompassing:
- ACC earnings compensation (ACC)
- Taxable benefit income excluding New Zealand Superannuation (BEN)
- New Zealand Superannuation (PEN)
- Paid Parental Leave (PPL)
- Student Allowance (STU)
- Wage & Salary (WS)
- Withholding income (WT).
In addition to this, entrants (IN) and exits (OUT) are included as well as job transitions between employers (J2J). The J2J are indicated by a suffix appended to WS and WT. Please refer to the metadata file for descriptions.
The ESFS download files below are primarily presented from a stock and/or flow perspective. Stock represents a count of the income source at a point in time (end of month) while flow represents a movement into or out of an income source between months.
The ESFS has been developed with the assistance of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
The zipped file contains these ESFS files in CSV format (except metadata, which is Excel).
- Primary income flows by age band
- Beneficiary entrants by type and by primary income source
- Beneficiary exits by type and by primary income source
- Beneficiary stocks
- Employment status by industry
- Change in employment status by industry
- Number of people by primary income source ‒ stocks
- Number of people by primary income source ‒ flows
- Primary income flows by region
- Primary income flows by MSD region
- Wage and salary inflows
- Wage and salary outflows
- Wage and salary stocks
- ESFS metadata (Excel)
Access selected series in the COVID-19 portal
View a selection of the ESFS series in the COVID-19 portal.
If the link doesn’t take you to the ESFS data, use dropdown menu to select:
- category:
- employment stocks and flows series – number of people (flows)
- employment stocks and flows series – by age band
- employment stocks and flows series – status by industry
- employment stocks and flows series – by region
- employment stocks and flows series – by MSD region
About the experimental dataset
The ESFS is released approximately three weeks after the end of the reference month. This enables the provision of a more timely and rich insight compared with other sources of labour market information.
This experimental data is aimed at an analytical audience.
We are exploring development of an extended time series to April 1999 that will provide additional value to our customers.
Relationship with other labour market measures
Coverage of ESFS differs from that of current Stats NZ labour market statistics – measures produced from the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), Linked employer-employee data (LEED), and the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS).
Both the Monthly employment indicator (MEI) series and ESFS are produced from the same source data. ESFS uses all of the income sources while MEI focuses on employment income.
Known issues
The series is not seasonally adjusted.
Not all transitions/flows are available for every month due to insufficient record counts.
What we’d like feedback about
We’d like your feedback on:
- what additional presentational dimensions of the series would interest you
- what file format or presentational needs you have.
Contact Bernie Hanratty to send feedback or ask for technical information.
Data source
ESFS is based on administrative tax data from Inland Revenue covering people receiving income with tax deducted at source ‒ approximately 3.5 million people per month.
ESFS focuses on primary income transitions, so some of the people in the MEI definition of employed will show up in other categories (like Benefits or New Zealand Superannuation) if they receive income from another source.
We use the 16 regional council boundaries for all regions except the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) operational regions. These are defined by MSD and have been mapped by Stats NZ on a ‘best fit’ geography with MSD guidance.
For both the region and MSD region files, flows are representative of people who stay in the same region.
Data quality
Data is subject to monthly revisions.
Perspectives for region, and to a lesser extent industry, can be subject to a lag in data updating.
For data confidentiality and data quality purposes, counts below 21 are suppressed.
In instances where a source data variable(s) is not populated, these are grouped into ‘Unallocated’.
Enquiries
Bernie Hanratty
04 931 4765
[email protected]
