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Who received the COVID-19 wage subsidies? - September 2020

Initial work on the Wage Subsidies has been supplemented with anonymised information from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI). The IDI is a large anonymised research database maintained by Stats NZ and contains data about life events, like education, industry, region, demographics, income, benefits, migration, justice, and health. It comes from government agencies, Stats NZ surveys, and non-government organisations (NGOs).

This report describes the volume and proportion of jobs supported by the Wage Subsidy, Wage Subsidy Extension, and the Resurgence Wage Subsidy. The information has been analysed by age, gender, ethnic group, industry, business size and region.

Our initial report “Who was supported by the wage subsidy and extension? July 2020” used data to 24 July 2020, which was prior to Auckland moving back to Alert Level 3 on 12 August 2020 and before the release of the Resurgence Wage Subsidy (applications opened on 21 August 2020).

This report updates all the information provided in our initial report while adding additional information using data to 11 September 2020. All wage subsidies were closed to new applications by this date and the vast majority of applications had been completed.

This data is sourced from:

  • the 14 September 2020 COVID Wage Subsidy dataset which records who received the Wage Subsidy, Wage Subsidy Extension and Resurgence Wage Subsidy;
  • the June 2020 ad hoc Employer Monthly Schedule dataset (Inland Revenue data) to determine the total number of paid jobs; and
  • the July 2020 IDI refresh for determining demographic, industry and location details for people in the groups above.

Key insights

Overall, 62% of jobs (excluding sole traders) were supported by at least one wage subsidy.

Of all jobs that received a wage subsidy, 32% were supported by two or more wage subsidies.

The proportions differ by age, sex, industry and region.

  • A greater proportion of employed males have been supported (69%) than females (54%)
    • This appears to be a function of the industries where males and females tend to be highly represented. Some male dominated industries – such as construction – accessed a high level of job support, whereas some female dominated industries – such as social services – accessed very low levels of support.
  • A greater proportion of Asian employees have been supported (70%) than other ethnic groups.
    • This is driven by Asian employees making up a much higher proportion (38%) of jobs supported in the accommodation and food services industry, where nearly all jobs are supported, than they do in any other industry.
    • Additionally, 64% of all Asian employees supported were in Auckland which is the region with the highest proportion of all employees supported.
  • The construction industry had the highest proportion of supported jobs from the Wage Subsidy
  • The arts and recreation services industry had the highest proportion of jobs supported by more than one of the wage subsidies. Over half (56%) of all unique arts and recreation services jobs supported by a wage subsidy were supported by two or more wage subsidies.
  • The accommodation and food industry had the second highest proportion of jobs supported by at least one subsidy.
  • Auckland had the highest proportion of supported jobs (68%).
    • Of all jobs in Auckland that were supported by a wage subsidy, 41% received two or more wage subsidies - the highest rate across all regions.
  • Employees of small businesses (those with 1 – 19 employees) were more likely to have received a wage subsidy than employees from larger businesses. This likelihood decreased as the business size increased.
Download the report (PDF 822.24KB)
Download the data file (Excel 2.68MB)

Additional information

Wage Subsidy Timeline

  • 17 March 2020. The Wage Subsidy opened for applications from employers, including self-employed people, across New Zealand who experienced at least a 30% decline in revenue over a month related to COVID-19. It provided eligible employers a lumpsum payment for each employee, to help pay and retain employees for a 12-week period.
  • 9 June 2020. The Wage Subsidy closed.
  • 10 June 2020. The Wage Subsidy Extension opened for applications from employers, including self employed people, across New Zealand who experienced at least a 40% decline in revenue over a month related to COVID-19. It provided eligible employers a lumpsum payment for each employee, to help pay and retain employees for an 8-week period.
  • 21 August 2020. The Resurgence Wage Subsidy opened for applications from employers, including self-employed people, across New Zealand who experienced at least a 40% decline in revenue over two weeks related to COVID-19. It provided eligible employers a lumpsum payment for each employee, to help pay and retain employees for a 2-week period.
  • 1 September 2020. The Wage Subsidy Extension closed.
  • 3 September 2020. The Resurgence Wage Subsidy closed.

What other support is available?

This report only considers the Wage Subsidy and Wage Subsidy Extension. It does not consider any of the other supports available including:

  • the COVID-19 Income Relief Payment (CIRP)
  • the COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme
  • the Essential Worker Leave Support Scheme

Information about other supports can be found here.

Why does this analysis not show the Tourism Sector?

The tourism sector has been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and consequential border closures. This sector is not captured as a single industry within ANZSIC06, but crosses across multiple industries such as Accommodation and Retail Trade.

There is no comparable information available to identify which businesses receive income from tourism. However, the Wage Subsidy Business Survey found that 30 percent of Wage Subsidy Survey respondents received income from tourism.

This survey also provides interesting insights into other aspects of the Wage Subsidy including information on businesses who identify as Māori or Pacific businesses.