Statistics for challenging times

Embargoed until 10:45am – 25 August 2009

Statistics for challenging times

Auckland businesses are being encouraged to use freely-available statistics to help them make good decisions in challenging economic times.

Statistics New Zealand is hosting four free ‘Go Stats’ seminars in Auckland for small to medium sized businesses, to show them how to improve their bottom line.

Deputy Government Statistician Patrick Ng says that “in these tough economic times, businesses have fewer margins to work with, and the impact of good or bad decisions is therefore more striking”.

Statistics New Zealand has joined with the Chamber of Commerce to run the Auckland seminars, which are part of a national series.

"Businesses are often run with little consideration given to assessing income flows, cost pricing strategies, customer demographics, or competitor information. Statistics provide data that can help assess this information, as well as assessing other opportunities to maximise income or minimise costs,” Mr Ng says.

“Businesses are continually surprised at how much helpful information we provide. These seminars are also a way we can give back to businesses, as we appreciate the time they spend giving us data which we turn into relevant information.” Seminar topics include evaluating business potential, targeting promotions, estimating market share, assessing new site locations, applying for finance, and analysing import/export trends.

Running concurrently is a free ‘Web Stats!’ seminar, targeted at the general public, which will show people how to navigate Statistics New Zealand's new website. Examples used will focus on census and social information.

For more information visit www.stats.govt.nz/gostats or www.stats.govt.nz/webstats for seminar details.

Facts about Auckland

As at February 2008, there were 153,216 small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Auckland region. This figure accounted for 96% of the total number of businesses in the Auckland region.

* SMEs’ contribution to employment in the Auckland region stands at 34%, which equates to just under 220,000 people being employed by an SME.

* The growth of SMEs in the Auckland region between 2000 and 2008 was 30%, which outstrips the New Zealand growth over the same time period of 25%.

* The industry in the Auckland region with the highest number of SMEs is the rental, hiring and real estate services industry. This industry had just under 32,000 SMEs in 2008, which equates to more than one in five SMEs in the Auckland region. The next highest industry for SMEs in the Auckland region was professional, scientific and technical services, with just over 22,000 SMEs in 2008.

* By 2021 the Auckland region is predicted to grow to 1.7 million people, a growth of 31% since the last census in 2006.

* The Auckland region contributed almost a third of total exports in the most recent financial year, with 31.8% of total exports.

ENDS

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