Enterprise numbers, employees continue to grow in New Zealand

The construction industry is leading growth in the number of New Zealand businesses and the number of people employed, the government statistics agency said Thursday.

Most industries had more businesses and staff than last year, with mining the only industry to go against the trend, according to Statistics New Zealand.

The business demography statistics showed 515,000 enterprises in total in New Zealand as of February, up 1.6 percent year on year, with those businesses employing 2.1 million paid staff, up 2.4 percent in the same period.

For the fourth year in a row, more businesses were starting up than shutting down.

"Increases in business and employee counts over the year to February 2016 - employee counts in particular - were spread across almost all industries and regions," business register manager Mary Reid said in a statement.

"Of the 19 industries, 16 had more enterprises, and all except mining had more staff than they did a year ago."

Continuing its growth of recent years, the construction industry added 6,800, or 4.8 percent, more employees over the year, and the number of enterprises increased by 2,020, or 3.7 percent.

Over the past decade, the health care and social services industry had added 39,000 or 21.1 percent more employees - the highest addition by any industry.

This industry employed 224,000 people as of February, making it a close second to manufacturing - historically the largest employer - with 235,000 people.

Of the enterprises born in the February 2015 year, 84 percent survived until February 2016, while only 26 percent of enterprise births in the February 2006 year survived to February 2016.

The 10-year survival rate varied significantly across industries - from 36 percent for the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry at the top end, to 20 percent for the information media and telecommunications industry at the bottom end. Endit