4. Industry and Employment
The IT Industry comprises those industry sectors whose business is IT related; eg software houses. By IT occupation is meant a job whose focus is on IT, eg programmer. There are non-IT occupations within the IT industry (eg an accountant in a computer bureau) and IT occupations in non-IT industries (eg a programmer in a bank).
The table below shows, as at 1991, the distribution of IT occupations with respect to the IT industry.
| No. Employed | IT Occupations | All Occupations |
|---|
| IT Industry | 8,826 | 40,200 |
|---|
| All Industry | 27,717 | 1,400,376 |
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The figures for this table were taken from the 1991 Census of Dwellings.
In 1991, 4% of the working population of New Zealand was in an IT occupation and/or working for an IT related firm. (As discussed below, a broad definition of the IT industry is used.)
4.1 IT Industry
Digital convergence is increasingly tying computer technology to telecommunications and broadcasting. For this reason the definition of IT industry used in this paper is broad, encompassing telecommunications and electronic media. It could be argued that some of the industry sectors below do not deal exclusively with IT even under this broad definition, however these figures are based on the standard industrial codes in use in New Zealand at the time this data was collected.
The information for the charts on the IT industry below is taken from the annual business survey operated by Statistics New Zealand. Staff numbers are full time equivalents.
There was a coverage change in 1994. This added businesses identified through data matching with IRD, and those which had originally voluntarily registered for GST but whose turnover subsequently grew to over $30,000pa. It removed businesses whose turnover had dropped below $30,000pa. The effect of the coverage change on the figures above was neutral over the total of all categories. There was a decrease in the numbers reported to be employed in consultancy and software development, which was matched by an increase in those employed in computer shops. There was no impact on the telecommunications category. The 1994 figures given here are the revised ones.
The chart shows a steady rise in employment in the IT industry since 1992, despite a significant reduction in the telecommunications sector which is its biggest single component.
Employment in IT Industries
| | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 |
|---|
| Office, Computing & Accounting Eqpt | 570 | 750 | 840 | 740 | 630 | 720 | 751 |
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| Radio, TV & Communication Eqpt | 3,020 | 2,590 | 2,080 | 1,830 | 1,900 | 2,240 | 2,581 |
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| Electronic Equipment | 5,620 | 6,330 | 6,800 | 6,710 | 6,900 | 8,210 | 9,471 |
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| Computer & Calculator Shops | 910 | 960 | 1,020 | 990 | 1,090 | 1,361 | 1,751 |
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| Telecommunications | 19,740 | 17,610 | 16,440 | 13,980 | 13,540 | 11,901 | 10,600 |
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| Computer Bureaux | 2,970 | 2,560 | 2,510 | 2,100 | 1,930 | 1,881 | 1,520 |
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| Software Development | 1,790 | 2,040 | 2,200 | 2,250 | 2,490 | 2,791 | 3,061 |
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| Computer Consultancy | 1,190 | 1,420 | 1,570 | 1,780 | 1,980 | 2,240 | 2,820 |
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| Data Banks | 1,950 | 1,970 | 1,370 | 1,320 | 1,220 | 1,071 | 1,120 |
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The chart below better shows this trend. It shows the same data as the chart above with the exception of the telecommunications industry. There has been a 12% increase in employment in the non-telecommunication IT industry in each of the last 2 years.
Employment in IT Industries excluding Telecommunications
| 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 |
|---|
| 24,010 | 24,690 | 24,240 | 24,010 | 24,540 | 27,470 | 30776 |
4.2 IT Occupations
The information on IT Occupations in this section, including age/sex breakdowns and ethnicity data, was taken from the 1991 census and has not been updated since the previous release of this paper.
Occupations are categorised according to the occupation classification codes used by Statistics New Zealand. For the purpose of this paper, the following codes are deemed to be IT occupations:
| Code | Description | Category |
|---|
| 12271 | Computing Services Manager | Managerial |
| 21311 | Systems Analyst | Highly Skilled |
| 21312 | Computer Systems Engineer | Highly Skilled |
| 31142 | Computer Systems Technician | Skilled |
| 31211 | Computer Programmer | Skilled |
| 31212 | Computer Operator | Skilled |
| 33152 | Technical Representative | Skilled |
| 41121 | Data Entry Operator | Unskilled |
Category is used for stratifying the occupations by skill level.
The age sex breakdown for those in IT occupations is shown below.
Percentages of the Working Population by Age and Sex who are in IT Occupations at Various Levels
Each bar in this chart represents the numbers employed in IT occupations as a percentage of the numbers working in all occupations, for a given age/sex group. This percentage is referred to as a participation rate below.
Women in the 15-24 year age group have similar participation rates to men in skilled IT occupations, but this is not the case for women in older groups. In particular, managerial IT occupations (which are mostly in the older groups) are male dominated by a factor of 4 to 1. This is also true to a lesser extent for more highly skilled non-managerial occupations such as Systems Analysis.
By contrast, in data entry women outnumber men by 8 to 1 across all but the two oldest age groups. Data entry has traditionally been a female dominated occupation.
The relatively low representation of women in skilled IT occupations could be due to a historic imbalance which has recently disappeared, or to difficulties in re-entering skilled IT occupations after a career break.
Breakdown of those Employed in skilled IT Occupations by Ethnic Origin
The chart above is based on numbers employed in skilled IT occupations. No account is taken of the differing sizes of the populations involved.
Percentage of Working Population in IT Occupations Excluding Data Entry
The above chart shows the numbers working in skilled IT occupations as a percentage of the working population in each ethnic group.
Those identifying as NZ European have twice the participation rate in skilled IT occupations enjoyed by Maori and Pacific Islanders. Those of Asian descent, have very high participation rates, as do those who do not fall into the above categories or did not specify - this group may include large numbers of recent immigrants.
Women have lower participation rates than men except in Maori and Pacific Island groups. Maori and Pacific Island women have a high rate (compared with working population) of being computer operators, which is shown in the charts as a skilled IT occupation.
The following chart shows the participation rate of each ethnic group in IT occupations at each level. Effectively it answers the question "what would be the ethnic breakdown of each level of IT occupation if the working populations of each ethnic group were the same?"
IT Occupations at Various Levels as a Percentage of Total Numbers in IT Occupations for each Ethnic Group
Unskilled IT occupations (data entry) attract nearly equal participation rates from the different groups, although that for Pacific Islanders is slightly higher.
The participation rate for the Asian group is very high for highly skilled and skilled IT occupations. The "other" group is strongly represented in managerial IT occupations (computer services managers). This may represent a tendency for recent immigrants to hold managerial positions, due possibly to Immigration policy.
Maori and Pacific Island participation rates are low for skilled and managerial IT occupations, and very low for highly skilled ones.
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