Photo: RNZ
Stats NZ is reviewing its systems after data incorrectly overstated Wellington's job losses.
As more Health New Zealand cuts were revealed, business employment data painted a very bleak picture of the capital.
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub compiled data from this source that showed that from a year ago, the number of jobs in Wellington City has dropped 19,430.
That is equal to 11.6 percent of the jobs in that area.
He said the impact on the region would be grim.
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub. Photo: supplied
Auckland as a region - a much larger area - had lost just over 10,000 jobs over the same period.
"The issue for Wellington city is that of course it's very Wellington CBD-centric but all the people who live in Wellington don't necessarily work in the CBD.
"The effect is showing up in a wider region."
Most of the cuts would be people who commuted into the city to work, he said.
"The impact is much more widely felt. There are 153,000 jobs in Wellington's CBD. That's jobs located in the city but there are only 100,000 people in Wellington City who have jobs."
He said it was not clear how many of the Wellington job losses were directly due to public sector job cuts but it would be a proportion.
Stats NZ general manager of statistical delivery Jason Attewell said the situation for Wellington had been made to look worse because a number of larger employees had recorded all of their employees in a single location.
"This resulted in some jobs being incorrectly allocated to locations, which made it appear as though jobs in certain territorial authorities and regions had been 'lost', when this was not the case.
"We strive to provide the best data possible. In this case we didn't pick up the change in respondent behaviour, and we thank those that brought it to our attention.
"Our investigations have confirmed that the national level data for filled jobs by workplace location is not affected by this issue. This information is sourced from data in the tax system, and we are confident that this is robust and of high quality.
"We are now working on a fix to revise this data and correct the inaccurate responses, as well as looking at options for introducing more checks to avoid this happening again. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.
Eaqub said the data was still grim for Wellington.
He said it was not clear how many of the Wellington job losses were directly due to public sector job cuts but it would be a proportion.
On Friday, Health NZ confirmed almost 600 people had taken voluntary redundancy.
RNZ has estimated about 10,000 public sector roles have been cut so far.
*This story has been updated after StatsNZ announced it was amending its data.
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