Construction industry at the top of the ladder for growth

The construction industry added 12,820 more enterprises and 45,400 more employees over the five-year period to February 2019 – the highest gains by any of the 19 industries, Stats NZ said today.

These increases reflect an average annual growth rate of 4.5 percent for enterprises and 6.1 percent for employees for this industry over the past five years. This is more than double the corresponding growth rates (2.0 and 2.7 percent, respectively) for all industries combined for the same period.

“In the year to February 2019, the construction industry added 3.9 percent more employees – the second-highest increase among all industries, both in number and percentage,” business register manager Mary Reid said.

Strong growth in residential building construction

At February 2019, there were 65,320 enterprises in the construction industry overall, engaging 177,000 employees. Of these, 21,650 enterprises were in the residential building construction industry sub-group, employing 30,300 people.

“Residential building construction had 52.4 percent more employees than five years ago, reflecting an average annual growth rate of 8.8 percent over the five-year period to February 2019,” Ms Reid said.

The number of new residential buildings consented during the past five years (to August 2019) had a similar growth pattern, with the number of consents rising at an average annual rate of 8.2 percent.

The non-residential building construction sub-group, which mainly covers commercial and industrial buildings, had 13,300 employees engaged at February 2019. This follows an average annual growth rate of 5.1 percent over the past five years.

Explore the average growth for geographic units and employees during the last five years by more detailed geographic areas in our interactive map.

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