Source: MIL-OSI Submissions
New experimental weekly employment indicators released – Media release
17 June 2020
A new experimental weekly employment indicator series based on tax data has been developed to give more timely job figures during a time of heightened interest, but the figures should be used with caution, Stats NZ said today.
“While there are some quality issues with the data, this new series shows a week-on-week decrease in the number of paid jobs during the alert level 4 lockdown and then an immediate increase again as restrictions were eased,” senior manager Peter Dolan said.
The new series makes use of the detailed payday filing available from Inland Revenue starting in April 2019, to provide a rapid indication of weekly paid jobs, including those receiving the wage subsidy. The series includes three measures that trade off between quality and timeliness.
Data has not been seasonally adjusted, and no adjustments have been made to account for quality issues relating to operational practices, such as when employers file their payday returns. Stats NZ advises caution in making decisions based on this data.
The most accurate measure, ‘Number of paid jobs – 27 days’, uses payday files from the first month after the reference week
