This is our experimental section. The weekly employment indicators are not official statistics, and we advise caution when using the data.
Data will be updated weekly on a Thursday.
The experimental weekly series provides an early indicator of employment and labour market changes in a more timely manner than the monthly employment indicators series.
The weekly employment indicators use the timelier and more detailed payday filing that has been available from Inland Revenue since April 2019. Our experimental series includes number of paid jobs and earnings for two time-lag series that have different coverage of jobs depending on their pay period. The 20-day series covers jobs with pay periods of 14 days or fewer. The 34-day series includes all jobs regardless of their pay period.
About the data
Due to the nature of the administrative data that these indicators draw from, the accuracy of the data improves the further out from the reference week it relates to. These counts are published as they are, and no work has been done to adjust for seasonality or data flow issues. We advise strong caution in making decisions based on this data.
Note: These series can be impacted by delays in the filing and processing of the PAYE data, instead of genuine labour market changes. Below is a table detailing known periods with filing and processing delays.
Period (week ended) |
Change in filled jobs |
Cause |
17 Oct 2021 |
Large decrease |
Inland Revenue shutdown |
7 Mar 2021 |
Large decrease |
Inland Revenue shutdown |
20 Sep 2020 |
Large decrease |
Delays in processing filings |
12 Apr 2020 |
Large decrease |
COVID-19 level 4 lockdown |
Definitions and metadata
Employment indicators - weekly - DataInfo+ provides the methodology used to produce the weekly employment indicators, a data quality statement, and frequently asked questions.
Weekly employment indicators metadata - DataInfo+ provides definitions of terms, variables, and concepts used in this release.
Technical enquiries
Sue Chapman
03 964 8371
[email protected]
