Nursery, Turf and Gardening
Labour Market Dynamics
Industry dataset (economic indicators and labour market dynamics) 
Source: Linked Employer-Employee Data, Stats NZ1
Linked Employer-Employee Data (LEED) data is produced by Stats New Zealand quarterly to measure labour market dynamics. There is a lag in data availability of around 14 months due to the time it takes for the data to be completed by employers, to flow through Inland Revenue, and for Stats NZ to undertake relevant transformations and quality checks2. Here, we show the most recent data available at the time of publishing.
LEED data is available at the ANZSIC ‘group’ level, which is a broader level of classification than the ANZSIC class codes used for the workforce estimates. The relevant ANZSIC groups here is 011 Nursery and Floriculture Production3 which includes 0111 Nursery Production (Under Cover), 0112 Nursery Production (Outdoors), 0113 Turf Growing, 0114 Floriculture Production (Under Cover), and 0115 Floriculture Production (Outdoors).
Median Earnings
The quarterly median earnings for the Nursery and Floriculture Production industry have been consistently around $3,500 lower than earnings across all industries and about $2,500 lower than earnings across the ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’ industries with a similar increasing trend.
In the chart, we provide two benchmarks for reference: 'agriculture, forestry and fishing' which covers all industries involved in growing crops, raising animals, growing and harvesting timber, and harvesting fish and other animals from farms or their natural habitats, and a benchmark for 'all industries' which includes every industry group in New Zealand.
Quarterly Turnover Rate
The quarterly worker turnover rate for the Nursery and Floriculture Production industry remained consistently higher than all industries. The workforce turnover rate has become more similar to the average across ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’ industries, but this is because the workforce turnover rate reduced among the ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’ industries from 2020 onwards following COVID-19 restrictions and border closures. There are seasonal trends in the worker turnover rate, with worker turnover usually highest in the December quarter, and lowest in the September quarter although the quarterly worker turnover rate is for the December 2021 quarter is low compared to previous years.
In the chart, we provide two benchmarks for reference: 'agriculture, forestry and fishing' which covers all industries involved in growing crops, raising animals, growing and harvesting timber, and harvesting fish and other animals from farms or their natural habitats, and a benchmark for 'all industries' which includes every industry group in New Zealand.
Number of Filled Jobs
The number of filled jobs is an indicator of economic activity. The number of filled jobs showed an increasing trend to the December 2018 quarter with clear seasonal peaks in demand. Across 2019 and 2020 seasonal peaks in filled jobs were not as obvious with a fairly constant rate of filled jobs, but by 2021 the peak number of filled jobs in December is tracking closer to what it was in 2017.
Footnotes
1. Statistics New Zealand, “A Guide to Interpreting Official Quarterly Statistics Produced from the Linked Employer-Employee Data (LEED).,” Statistics New Zealand, July 29, 2009, https://www.stats.govt.nz/methods/guide-to-interpreting-the-leed-data.
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Nursery and Floriculture Production - Group 011,” June 26, 2013, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/australian-and-new-zealand-standard-industrial-classification-anzsic/2006-revision-2-0/detailed-classification/a/01/011.
3. Statistics New Zealand, “Guide to Interpreting the LEED Data.”