The accommodation and food service industries have both seen significant drops in filled job numbers in the December 2021 quarter, Stats NZ has released.
Public administration and construction were the largest drivers of job growth.
Filled jobs rose by 0.8 per cent or about 17,000 jobs between the September and December 2021 quarters after adjusting for seasonal effects.
This follows larger quarterly increases of 1.6 per cent in the September 2021 quarter and 1.2 per cent in the June 2021 quarter.
Auckland, the most populous region, had a smaller percentage increase in filled jobs of 0.5 per cent (3753 jobs), bringing the total number of seasonally adjusted filled jobs in the Auckland region to about 734,000 jobs.
These statistics use PAYE tax data to estimate filled job numbers and are adjusted to take into account seasonal effects.
"This reflects what we have seen in our other employment statistics, which showed increases in the employment rate and a tightening labour market," employment insights manager Sue Chapman says.
Total accrued earnings for the entire 2021 year were $142 billion, up by 8.5 percent ($11 billion) when compared with the 2020 year.
While total filled jobs have been steadily increasing over the last year, some industries have seen higher increases than others.
The industry with the biggest seasonally adjusted increase in job numbers this quarter was public administration and safety, which rose 3.4 per cent (5040 jobs) compared to the previous quarter.
Construction also experienced significant growth in filled jobs, rising by 2.3 per cent (4037 jobs).
Several industries had drops in filled jobs numbers when compared to the previous quarter.
The largest drop was in the accommodation and food services industry, which had 2073 fewer jobs (1.5 per cent) in the December 2021 quarter when compared with the September 2021 quarter.
"The arts and recreation industry, although a much smaller industry, also experienced a seasonally adjusted drop in job numbers this quarter," says Sue.
There were 1237 fewer jobs (3.1 per cent) in the arts and recreation industry when compared with the September 2021 quarter. The arts and recreation industry is yet to recover to its all-time high of 42,000 jobs in March 2020, prior to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
