Annual Enterprise Survey 2011

More industry data published in 2011

In this release of the AES we have published data at a greater level of detail, level 4, of the New Zealand Standard Industrial Output Classification (NZSIOC) wherever possible. The change from level 3 to level 4 has been made to increase the relevance of the data to the statistical needs of users. Some industries continue to be published at level 3 of NZSIOC to preserve confidentiality.

A survey redesign has enabled the publication of financial position data for all published industries for the first time. This data is available from 2009 through to 2011.

Impact of the 2010/11 Canterbury and Christchurch earthquakes on 2011 Annual Enterprise Survey data

Large earthquakes occurred in Christchurch in September 2010 and February 2011. These earthquakes and their aftershocks have had a significant influence on the ongoing economic output of businesses located in Christchurch. Some financial effects of these earthquakes can already be seen in the Excel tables (see the 'Downloads' box) for the central government and the general insurance industries. However, as the predominant balance date for this survey is 31 March 2011, just over a month after the February earthquake, the wider economic impacts of these events are not fully seen in this year's data.

Use of Charities Commission data in 2011

To continue to reduce respondent load, in the 2011 financial year the AES sourced data for 1,519 charities from the Charities Commission. This is the first time that Charities Commission data has been used in this way. In previous years all these charities received the AES postal questionnaire.

Treatment of local authorities data in the 2011 Annual Enterprise Survey

In this year's AES release there has been a major change in how local authority industry activity has been treated. In previous years, local authority activity was included within the relevant industry for a particular local authority function. For example, activity undertaken by local authorities in areas such as construction, urban bus transport, libraries, and roading were included within the different industries that the activity relates to. This year, these functions, along with all other local authority activity, are included in the local government industry. This change has been made because of difficulty in matching local authority expenses with income by function.

Agriculture fixed assets data

The administrative data source (IR10) is the primary source used for capturing the agricultural, forestry, and fishing division (ANZSIC06 division A). IR10 data does not provide direct estimates of additions and disposals of fixed assets, so modelling is used to calculate these. The modelling of IR10 data is currently under review, so additions and disposals of fixed assets have been suppressed from the 'all industries' table and all agricultural industry tables in this release.

Statistical Unit

A statistical unit is the level at which the survey is designed and forms the basis of sample selection. For the AES this is the kind-of-activity unit (KAU). (Definition of 'KAU' is a subdivision of an enterprise consisting of a set of one or more activity units for which a single set of accounting records are available.)

Selection Unit

A selection unit is the level at which a respondent to the survey is selected. For the AES this is the enterprise unit. (Definition of 'enterprise': a business or service entity operating in New Zealand. It can be a company, partnership, trust, estate, incorporated society, producer board, local or central government organisation, voluntary organisation or self-employed individual.)

Collection Unit

A collection unit is the level at which statistics are collected. For the AES, this is the same as the statistical unit and is the kind-of-activity unit (KAU). The selection unit (enterprise) may contain many KAUs, meaning that if an enterprise is selected then all of its KAUs will be included in the AES.

Under Coverage

Businesses that are not economically significant are not selected into the AES.

The working definition for 'economic significance' is that if an enterprise fulfils any one of the following conditions, then it is classified as economically significant:

• The Enterprise has greater than $30,000 Annual GST expenses or sales. (To avoid existing enterprises repeatedly changing their economic significance indicator, a buffer zone of $25,000 to $35,000 has been established),
• The Enterprise has more than 3 paid employees (This is the rolling mean employment which is measured as the twelve month moving average of the monthly employee-count figure),
• The Enterprise is in a GST exempt industry, other than residential property leasing and rental,
• The Enterprise is part of a Business Frame (BF) group,
• The Enterprise is a new GST registration and has registered for Salaries and Wages PAYE,
• The Enterprise is a new GST registration and is part of a IRD GST group return,
• The Enterprise has a geographic unit classified to agriculture, it is alive on the BF, and it is classified as economically significant. (Typically these units will be registered for GST and/or have paid employees.)
• IR10 income is greater than $40,000 annually.

Population and Sample Size

AES 2011

• Population size: 443,298 KAUs
• 298,207 units surveyed using tax data from the Inland Revenue Department
• Sample size: 17,116 directly surveyed
• 4,661 units were sourced from other government data
• 487 units were sourced from Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment data
• There were 122,827 non-sample units.