Jobs numbers and company earnings keep expanding

New employment data from Stats NZ gives an insight into how our economy has evolved over the past year.

The number of filled jobs in the March 2023 quarter was 2.8% higher than the year before, which highlights the country's strong employment market, despite the challenging economic conditions.

Some sectors enjoyed strong trading conditions over the year, with the five leading sectors for jobs growth being:

• Accommodation & food services = up 8.9%.
• Arts & recreation services = up 8.2%.
• Information media & telecommunications = up 6.5%.
• Electricity, gas, water & waste services = up 6.1%.
• Transport, postal & warehousing = up 5.8%.

But other sectors had weaker trading conditions, with the number of filled jobs increasing only marginally or even going backwards:

• Construction = up 2.0%.
• Manufacturing = up 1.7%.
• Retail trade = up 1.1%.
• Education and training = up 0.1%.
• Agriculture, forestry and fishing = down -2.4%.

The unemployment rate in the March quarter was only 3.4%, which is very low by historical standards. 

Earnings also increased over the year

Meanwhile, total gross earnings in the March quarter were 8.8% higher than the year before.

To give an indication of the strength of this result, the earnings growth for previous March quarters was:

• March 2017 = up 4.6%.
• March 2018 = up 6.4%.
• March 2019 = up 6.2%.
• March 2020 = up 6.5%.
• March 2021 = up 3.6%.
• March 2022 = up 9.8%.

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