Every year, some 60,000 young people leave school and make choices about their next steps that are important for the young people themselves, their whānau, and the New Zealand economy. Here we look at the latest data and research on school leaver outcomes... Read

The labour force participation rate has been consistently rising over the past 30 years in New Zealand, providing a welcome boost to the labour supply. But can participation keep rising? Read

US President Ronald Reagan is famous for repeatedly using the phrase “trust, but verify”, underscoring the importance of testing assumptions to confirm that claims are true. It’s a phrase that economists also keep in mind when dealing with a vast array of different datasets. Read

Te Pūkenga recently released an ITP Competition Report under an official information act (OIA) request. The report contains a trove of information and data about Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs) operating in each of New Zealand’s regions. I was surprised at the sheer number of TEOs in regions that have relatively small populations, which led me to wonder whether there would be benefits to having fewer TEOs. Read

To say that 2024 has been tough on both construction workers and employers is putting it mildly. In this article we use Stats NZ’s employment stocks and flows series to understand where construction workers typically come from, and where they head after construction. Read

The 2023 Infometrics Creativity Index confirms many of the trends and outcomes of previous years, but with some subtle differences below the surface. The overall importance of the arts and creative sector to the New Zealand economy was unchanged in 2023 from a year ago, with 4.27% of the workforce employed in the sector. Read

Wages tell us a great deal about the labour market and economy. For businesses, wages reflect the price they are willing to pay for labour, and for workers, wages reflect their willingness to supply labour rather than do other activities with their time. Wages therefore tell us the point where a fir... Read

Housing affordability is an important issue affecting the wellbeing of households. Recently, we dove deeper on housing affordability for two Waikato Region clients. This article explores several new ways of exploring local housing affordability to inform decision making. Read

New Zealanders’ knowledge of Asia is at an all-time high. In Asia New Zealand Foundation's annual New Zealanders' Perceptions of Asia 2024 survey, 59% percent of respondents to the 2024 survey reported knowing ‘at least a fair amount’ about Asia, up from just 33% ten years ago. Here we look at the numbers behind the rising Asian population and workforce in New Zealand. Read

New Zealand has experienced an immigration surge since we reopened our border to international migrants in August 2022. Here we look at how this surge has changed the make-up of workforces across New Zealand’s territorial authorities (TAs). Read