Employment Measurement
In 2003, Statistics New Zealand changed the strategy used to maintain the Business Frame (BF), from which business demography statistics are sourced (for further details refer to Appendix 1). The main change that affected this report from 2004 onwards is the change in the measure of employment from a full-time equivalent employee (FTE) count to an employee count (EC).
The EC is a head-count of salary and wage earners and is primarily sourced from taxation data. It covers paid employees, but does not include working proprietors other than those who pay themselves a salary or wage. The EC is sourced primarily from Inland Revenue's IR348 form – the Employer Monthly Schedule (EMS). This form must be completed monthly by employers and indicates the number of salary and wage earners. February is used as the reference month for business demography statistics. The employee count of a small number of enterprises is collected also by Statistics New Zealand survey.
In contrast, the FTE measure covered paid employees and included working proprietors who did not pay themselves a salary or wage. The FTE measure was updated annually in the BF by surveying employing businesses (excluding farming businesses). Some statistics in this report are expressed using a Rolling Mean Employment (RME) count. RME is a 12-month moving average of the monthly Employee Count figure.
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