Mixed results for filled jobs across all industries contributed to a slow quarter after a run of recent growth, Stats NZ said today.
Filled jobs numbers were almost unchanged between the December 2021 and March 2022 quarters, after adjusting for seasonal effects. This follows four consecutive quarterly increases during 2021.
| Quarter | Percentage change |
| Mar-16 | 0.6 |
| Jun-16 | 0.9 |
| Sep-16 | 0.9 |
| Dec-16 | 0.7 |
| Mar-17 | 0.5 |
| Jun-17 | 1.3 |
| Sep-17 | 0.9 |
| Dec-17 | 0.5 |
| Mar-18 | 0.6 |
| Jun-18 | 0.4 |
| Sep-18 | 0.3 |
| Dec-18 | 0.8 |
| Mar-19 | 0.7 |
| Jun-19 | 0.7 |
| Sep-19 | 0.5 |
| Dec-19 | 0.8 |
| Mar-20 | 0.3 |
| Jun-20 | -0.7 |
| Sep-20 | -0.2 |
| Dec-20 | -0.3 |
| Mar-21 | 0.4 |
| Jun-21 | 1 |
| Sep-21 | 1.6 |
| Dec-21 | 0.7 |
| Mar-22 | 0 |
These statistics use PAYE (pay as you earn) tax data to estimate filled job numbers, and are adjusted to account for seasonal effects.
“The March 2022 quarter was relatively weak in terms of filled jobs growth,” employment insights manager Sue Chapman said.
“The arrival of Omicron in combination with a tight labour market may have helped slow some of the recent jobs growth, with results mirroring that seen in our other March 2022 quarter labour market releases.”
Unemployment rate remains at 3.2 percent shows the seasonally adjusted number of employed people were steady over the quarter. Seasonally adjusted filled jobs in the Quarterly Employment Survey was up 0.3 percent in the March 2022 quarter, compared with a 1.2 percent rise in the December 2021 quarter.
Mixed results by industry
By industry, results were mixed with 12 industries recording an increase in filled jobs, while seven industries had a decrease in filled jobs for the March 2022 quarter. The largest decreases occurred in health care and social assistance, which was down 0.7 percent (1,849 jobs) and accommodation and food services was down 1.1 percent (1,579 jobs).
Education and training had an increase of 2.5 percent (4,842 jobs), while professional, scientific, and technical services continued its strong run of recent growth with a rise of 1.6 percent (2,786 jobs).
Annual earnings lift strongly
For total gross earnings, comparisons are on an annual basis to account for payroll timings.
Gross earnings for the year ended March 2022 were $146 billion, up $12 billion (9.3 percent) compared with the year ended March 2021. This was up strongly compared with gross earnings in the March 2021 year, which were up only $3.8 billion (2.9 percent) on the previous year.
“Slower earnings growth in the year ended March 2021 was mainly due to lower earnings during the June 2020 quarter, which coincided with the initial COVID-19 lockdown,” Ms Chapman said.
| Year ended March | Percent |
| 2016 | 5.8 |
| 2017 | 4.6 |
| 2018 | 6.4 |
| 2019 | 6.2 |
| 2020 | 6.5 |
| 2021 | 2.9 |
| 2022 | 9.3 |
Gross earnings in the health care and social assistance industry rose by $1.7 billion (11 percent) in the March 2021 year. Construction and professional, scientific, and technical services both had an increase of $1.6 billion (14 percent and 12 percent respectively) compared with the March 2021 year. No industries had a fall in gross earnings in the year ended March 2022 compared with the previous year.
