Labour Market Statistics (Income): June 2016 quarter

The Labour Market Statistics (Income) release reports on income information collected from the redeveloped Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), and contains most of the content previously collected in the New Zealand Income Survey (NZIS). The survey continues to ask employment and government transfers income questions each year, in the June quarter, but no longer collects income information about private transfers and investments. Improving labour market statistics and Income data available in Labour Market Statistics (Income) have more information about the income data available and the HLFS redevelopment. ##External data influencers We collected data in this release in the June 2016 quarter (4 April to 3 July 2016). Changes in income may be influenced by one-off events. Events that could have influenced the June 2016 quarter data are: the increase in the adult minimum wage from $14.75 to $15.25 (effective from 1 April 2016) increases in New Zealand Superannuation rates of 2.73 percent (effective from 1 April 2016). ##Response Rate As Income is a module of the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), the same target response rate and target achieved sample rate apply. The target response rate for the HLFS is 90 percent and target achieved sample rate is 76 percent. The response rate for the June 2016 quarter was 80.1 percent and the achieved sample rate was 70.9 percent. See New quality measures for the Household Labour Force Survey for more information on the sample rate and response rates. ##Sampling errors The table below summarises the main sampling errors for the June 2015 and June 2016 quarters, by income source. Relative sampling errors for average and median weekly income for all people aged 15 years and over, June 2015 and June 2016 quarters Income source Sampling error (%) 2015 2016 Average Wages and salaries 1 1 Self-employment 6 8 Government transfers 1 1 All sources collected 2 2 Median All sources collected 2 3 en-NZ