The New Zealand construction industry has contributed the highest job and employment gains of any sector over a five-year period to February 2019, according to Stats NZ.
It has added 12,820 more enterprises and 45,400 more employees over the five years and is the highest gains out of the 19 industries surveyed.
The increases reflect an average annual growth rate of 4.5% for enterprises and 6.1% for employees in the construction industry over the period.
This is more than double the corresponding growth rates (2% and 2.7%, respectively) for all industries combined for the same period.
“In the year to February 2019, the construction industry added 3.9% more employees – the second-highest increase among all industries, both in number and percentage,” business register manager Mary Reid says.
At February 2019, there were 65,320 enterprises in the construction industry overall, engaging 177,000 employees.
Of these, 21,650 enterprises were in the residential building construction industry sub-group, employing 30,300 people.
“Residential building construction had 52.4% more employees than five years ago, reflecting an average annual growth rate of 8.8% over the five-year period to February 2019,” Reid says.
The number of new residential buildings consented during the past five years (to August 2019) had a similar growth pattern, with the number of consents rising at an average annual rate of 8.2%.
The non-residential building construction sub-group, which mainly covers commercial and industrial buildings, had 13,300 employees at February 2019.
This follows an average annual growth rate of 5.1% over the past five years.
