Earnings for Older Workers Grow

27 November 2006

Earnings for Older Workers Grow

Filled jobs increased by 4.1 percent for the September 2005 year and by 18.5 percent from the September 2000 year, Statistics New Zealand said today. Figures over a five-year period for the September 2000 and 2005 years show that the greatest increase in jobs was for those aged 55 years and over, with a rise of 48.3 percent for those aged 55–59 years, 67.7 percent for those aged 60–64 years and 109.4 percent for those aged 65 years and over.

Although employees aged 65 years and over had one of the lowest levels of earnings, they had the highest increase in earnings between 2000 and 2005 (39.2 percent). Their average mean quarterly earnings increased from $4,750 to $6,610 between 2000 and 2005. The 15 to 19-year age group was associated with the second largest growth rate in earnings (26.8 percent), which may have been influenced by annual increases in minimum youth wage rates. The 55 to 59-year age group followed with the third largest growth rate in earnings (23.7 percent).

These results come from statistics released today from Linked Employer-Employee Data (LEED). LEED uses information from existing taxation and Statistics NZ sources to provide a range of information on the dynamics of the New Zealand labour market.

Using administrative data allows Statistics NZ to produce new statistics with demographic, regional, and industry detail, without increasing the burden on respondents. Statistics NZ strictly safeguards the privacy, security and confidentiality of individuals' details. No information on a person or specific business can be identified from published LEED statistics. More detailed statistics from LEED are available on the Statistics NZ website (www.stats.govt.nz).

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

ENDS

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