Poultry, Pigs and other livestock farming
Labour Market Dynamics
- Quarterly median earnings for Poultry workers are significantly lower than the national average as shown across ‘All industries’, which may contribute to the volatile turnover rates.
- The Other livestock farming industry has a seasonal peak over October to December. This seasonality leads to fluctuations in the demand for workers (number of jobs filled) and workforce stability (worker turnover rates).
- Demand for workers (number of filled jobs) in the Poultry farming industry is relatively stable, however, quarterly turnover rates are volatile indicating a less stable workforce in an industry with little seasonal patterns.
Industry dataset (economic indicators and labour market dynamics) 
Source: Linked Employer-Employee Data, Stats NZ1
In these charts 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.
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 is017 Poultry Farming3 which includes 0171 Poultry Farming (Meat) and 0172 Poultry Farming (Eggs) and 019 Other Livestock Farming4 which includes 0191 Horse Farming, 0192 Pig Farming, 0193 Beekeeping, and 0199 Other Livestock Farming n.e.c.
Beekeeping is included in the data we receive, and it is not possible for us to remove, though it is not relevant to these industries.
Beekeeping is covered in detail in the Apiculture Workforce Development Plan.
Based on 2018 Census data, we can see that the percentage of workers within the grouping for Other Livestock Farming (019) is as follows: Horse Farming – 20%, Pig Farming – 8%, Beekeeping – 44% and Other Livestock Farming n.e.c – 29%. Note that the census data on industry relates to the industry for the main job held by an individual.
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. Statistics New Zealand.
3. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Poultry Farming - Group 017,” 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/01/017.
4. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Other Livestock Farming - Group 019,” 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/01/019.