Labour Market Statistics: March 2026 quarter

Period-specific information Response Rates Survey Reference period Response rate Sample rate Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) Each week during the quarter (1 January 2026 – 31 March 2026) Target: 90 percent Achieved: 81.3 percent Target: 76 percent Achieved: 72.0 percent Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) The pay week ending on, or before, 20 February 2026 Target: See note Achieved: 90.6 percent N/A Labour cost index (LCI) Pay rates at 15 February 2026 Target: 94 percent Achieved: 93.1 percent N/A Note: due to changes in how response rates for the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) are being reported, there is currently no comparable target. A table of response rates for the QES is presented towards the end of this page. See Household Labour Force Survey sources and methods: 2025 for more information on HLFS sample rate and response rates. HLFS Coverage rates Usually the undercoverage rate in the HLFS is around 20 percent. The overall undercoverage rate for the HLFS in the March 2026 quarter was 22.0 percent. This compares with 21.1 percent in the December 2025 quarter and 20.1 percent in the March 2025 quarter. Automatic Outliering In the March 2023 quarter we implemented automatic outliering to the seasonally adjusted HLFS series. There were no changes to automatic outliering this quarter. Outliers During the seasonal adjustment process, X-13-ARIMA-SEATS can give less weight to the irregular component. Specifically, if the estimated irregular component at a point in time is sufficiently large compared with the standard deviation of the irregular component as a whole, then the irregular component at that point can be downweighted or removed completely and re-estimated. We refer to such observations as partial- and zero-outliers, respectively. In practice, the downweighting of outliers does little to seasonally adjusted data, but the impact of the outliers on the trend series will generally be reduced. However, if an outlier ceases to be an outlier as more data becomes available, then significant revisions to the trend series become possible. Outliers Quarters Male employed Female employed Male unemployed Female unemployed Male not in the labour force Female not in the labour force Jun 2025 .. .. .. .. .. .. Sep 2025 .. .. .. .. .. .. Dec 2025 .. .. .. .. .. P Mar 2026 .. .. .. .. .. .. Key: .. – no adjustment P – partial weight Z – zero weight Revisions to HLFS Each quarter, we apply the seasonal adjustment process to the latest quarter and all previous quarters. Every estimate is subject to revision each quarter as new data is added, which means that seasonally adjusted estimates for previous quarters may change slightly. In practice, estimates more than two years from the end-point will change little. This table lists the changes in estimates between the current and previous quarters for the seasonally adjusted data. Percent revision from last estimate, seasonally adjusted Quarters Male employed Female employed Male unemployed Female unemployed Male not in labour force Female not in labour force Mar 2025 0.00 0.02 -0.07 0.26 0.04 -0.03 Jun 2025 0.01 0.01 -0.03 0.12 -0.01 0.02 Sep 2025 0.01 -0.01 -0.01 -0.06 -0.02 0.04 Dec 2025 -0.01 -0.03 0.11 -0.42 -0.01 -0.03 This table presents revisions for the trend estimates. Trend revisions are generally larger than those of the seasonally adjusted data. Percent revision from last estimate, trend Quarters Male employed Female employed Male unemployed Female unemployed Male not in labour force Female not in labour force Mar 2025 0.00 0.01 -0.02 0.10 0.02 -0.02 Jun 2025 0.01 0.01 -0.06 0.18 0.00 0.01 Sep 2025 0.02 0.01 0.03 0.11 -0.01 0.00 Dec 2025 -0.03 -0.08 0.04 -1.02 -0.03 0.21 The table below shows the average of all such absolute revisions, expressed relatively, and indicates to what extent the current estimates might be revised when the revised data for the next quarter becomes available. Mean absolute percent revisions Seasonally adjusted Trend 1-step 4-step 1-step 4-step Male employed 0.06 0.10 0.20 0.21 Female employed 0.06 0.10 0.24 0.27 Male unemployed 0.55 0.88 2.22 2.35 Female unemployed 0.53 0.98 2.09 2.29 Male not in labour force 0.10 0.18 0.41 0.40 Female not in labour force 0.10 0.16 0.39 0.42 QES Response rate The total response rate for the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) in the March 2026 quarter was 90.6 percent. The reference period was the pay week ending on, or before, 20 February 2026. QES response rates using different measurements The above response rate is calculated as a percentage of firms in the sample that we received usable data for. This response rate includes full coverage data for approximately 2,400 Ministry of Education schools which are gathered through an administrative source. Excluding these units, the response rate would be 85.4 percent. Prior to the December 2022 quarter, we had reported the QES response rate as a percentage of non-key firms’ weighted rolling mean employment (RME). RME is an estimate of a firm’s average employee count, which is then weighted up to represent a portion of similar sized firms in the economy. Key firms (the largest, most economically significant firms) were excluded as the aim is to collect all the key firms in the quarter. This method provides an estimate of the achieved coverage of the survey but does not strictly measure the number of firms that responded to the survey. This method excludes key firms and any administrative data we sourced. Using this method, we would have reported an 83.8 percent response rate in the March 2026 quarter. Collection response rate is another measure, which counts all responses from both key and non-key firms without applying RME weights. This unweighted measure includes responses from units that have consolidated with other entities, units identified as out of scope, and those granted exemptions (whether for compassionate reasons or through circumstantial requests), while excluding any units where data comes from administrative sources or units that have been consistently suppressed from survey distribution over multiple quarters. With this method, the response rate would be 85.9 percent. Below is a table of achieved QES response rates using the different measurements. Quarter Total response rate Response rate excluding administrative school data Non-key firm weighted RME response rate Collection response rate March 2026 90.6% 85.4% 83.8% 85.9% December 2025 89.3% 83.3% 82.8% 83.6% September 2025 89.9% 84.2% 81.6% 85.4% June 2025 90.8% 85.7% 85.1% 86.1% March 2025 90.7% 85.4% 84.0% 86.1% December 2024 89.4% 83.4% 81.8% 84.9% September 2024 91.1% 86.0% 85.2% 84.8% June 2024 92.0% 87.5% 87.0% 89.0% March 2024 91.8% 87.2% 88.6% 89.0% December 2023 85.9% 77.8% 75.9% 78.6% September 2023 88.8% 82.7% 84.1% 83.6% June 2023 90.4% 85.0% 85.0% 87.3% March 2023 90.8% 85.5% 87.1% 87.2% December 2022 88.3% 81.4% 84.1% 82.6% September 2022 90.9% 85.6% 88.3% 87.8% June 2022 92.2% 87.8% 89.1% 89.1% March 2022 92.5% 88.1% 90.1% 89.3% December 2021 89.4% 83.1% 89.5% 89.1% September 2021 92.5% 88.1% 90.5% 89.3% June 2021 92.3% 87.7% 92.0% 89.1% March 2021 90.9% 85.4% 87.3% 89.1% Sample rotation in QES A change to the QES sample design, known as sample rotation, was introduced from the March 2023 quarter onwards. The rotation is intended to gradually replace some long-term respondents in the sample. The rotated industries for each quarter are referenced in the table below: Quarter Industry (ANZSIC06 Division) where sample rotation has been implemented March 2023 Transport, Postal, and Warehousing (I) Education and Training (P) Health Care and Social Assistance (Q) June 2023 Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (M) Public Administration and Safety (O) Arts and Recreation Services (R) September 2023 Manufacturing (C) Construction (E) March 2025 Accommodation and Food Services (H) Financial and Insurance Services (K) June 2025 Retail Trade (G) Other Services (S) September 2025 Administrative and Support Services (N) March 2026 Mining (B) Wholesale Trade (F) Information Media and Telecommunications (J) When an industry is rotated, sampling errors can be higher than in the previous quarter. As a result, movements in these industries should be interpreted alongside the accompanying sampling error information. As sample sizes are often relatively small at the industry level, rotation can lead to larger changes in total variables such as total filled jobs and total gross earnings. In contrast, the impact on average earnings variables is smaller. LCI The LCI measures changes in salary and wage rates for a fixed quantity and quality of labour. LCI data is collected by postal and electronic surveys. For the March 2026 quarter, respondents were asked to report pay rates on the reference date of 15 February 2026. The response rate was 93.1 percent, finishing below the target response rate of 94 percent. The response rate for key firms was 97.0 percent, below the target of 100 percent. Labour cost index – DataInfo+ has more information about LCI methodology. Quarter Response rate Target March 2026 93.1 94 December 2025 90.5 94 September 2025 89.5 94 June 2025 92.4 94 March 2025 90.0 94 December 2024 87.7 94 September 2024 92.0 94 June 2024 93.3 94 March 2024 91.5 94 December 2023 93.1 94 September 2023 87.0 94 June 2023 87.4 94 March 2023 87.6 94 December 2022 86.3 94 September 2022 87.4 94 June 2022 93.4 94 March 2022 91.3 94 December 2021 92.1 94 September 2021 91.4 94 June 2021 96.3 94 March 2021 95.6 94 December 2020 95.8 94 September 2020 94.1 94 June 2020 95.2 94 March 2020 95.0 94 December 2019 95.1 94 September 2019 94.8 94 June 2019 95.3 94 March 2019 95.0 94 December 2018 94.8 94 September 2018 95.2 94 June 2018 95.2 94 March 2018 95.4 94 General information and methodology For general information and methodology on the specific surveys within the labour market statistics release, please see the following Datainfo+ pages: Household Labour Force Survey Labour Cost Index Quarterly Employment Survey en-NZ