Labour Market Statistics: June 2021 quarter

#Period-specific information

##Response Rates

See Household Labour Force Survey sources and methods: 2016 for more information on the 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 June 2021 quarter was 20.9 percent. This compares with 20.9 in the March 2021 quarter and 7.7 percent in the June 2020 quarter. ###Multiple jobs holders series now available We have published four new series with information on the number of multiple job holders, available on Infoshare. The series start from June 2016 and are listed below:

• HLFQ.SK1++ - Multiple job holders by sex and labour force status
• HLFQ.SK2+++ - Multiple job holders by sex and occupation
• HLFQ.SK3++ - Multiple job holders by industry
• HLFQ.SK4++ - Multiple job holders by employment status

We have also made changes to our series for youth labour force and education status. Seasonally adjusted HLFQ.S9[A-F]+++ have been suppressed for quality reasons. Additionally, a new aggregate classification of youth in employment, education and training or where education and training is unspecified (non-NEET) has been created as:

• HLFQ.S8K+++
• HLFA.S9K+++
• HLFQ.S9K+++

###New Sample Following every census, we review the HLFS sample design. The updated sample design will be implemented over eight quarters (two years), starting in the December 2020 quarter. For the June 2021 quarter, three eighths of the households are from the new sample.

###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.

There were no outliers in our main series in the last year.

###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.

This table presents revisions for the trend estimates. Trend revisions are generally larger than those of the seasonally adjusted data.

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.

##QES

###Response rate The response rate for the Quarterly Employment Survey in the June 2021 quarter was 92.0 percent.

###QES June 2021 quarter revisions The Quarterly Employment Survey was redeveloped in March 2021, to ensure it remains fit-for-purpose. Stats NZ continued to monitor and assess the new QES design during the June 2021 quarter and, as a result, we have adjusted our back-casting, particularly in the construction and professional, scientific, and administrative services industries. This affects all QES data up to and including the December 2020 quarter.

In addition, we made some revisions to the March 2021 quarter to reflect improved information received from respondents during the June 2021 quarter. This has mainly affected the industries in the table below.

The revisions above will have affected average hourly and weekly earnings; gross hours and earnings; and the seasonally adjusted and trend series.

##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 June 2021 quarter, respondents were asked to report pay rates on the reference date of May 15th 2021. The response rate was 96.3 percent, exceeding the target response rate of 94 percent. The response rate for key firms was 98.9 percent, with a target of 100 percent.

##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