Parker David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 13 September 2012. Volume:683;Page:5217. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
6. 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: Does he stand by his statement “In the past 2 years however almost 60000 net new jobs have been created”; if so what was the net number of jobs created in the two most recent years of the Statistics New Zealand Linked Employer-Employee Dataset? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Associate Minister of Finance) 
 on behalf of the Minister of Finance: Yes 57000 more people have a job now than did 2 years ago. That is according to the household labour force survey seasonally adjusted which is the standard internationally recognised measure of employment and unemployment. To the second part of the question the data from the linked employer-employee data set is not internationally recognised. It looks at specific PAYE jobs rather than people jobs and in any case it appears to significantly undercount the number of jobs in the economy. Also the most recent data is 15 months old so it is considerably out of date. But even given those caveats the linked employer-employee data set showed a net increase of 4870 jobs over the 2 most recent years from June 2009 to June 2011. 
Hon David Parker 
: Why does he cherry-pick the wrong number of new jobs when Statistics New Zealand says that the most accurate measure of job creation is the linked employer-employee data set which is based on actual Inland Revenue Department returns? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I have just explained to the member that it does not capture all jobs in the economy; it captures only PAYE jobs. To assist the member I will quote from Statistics New Zealand in terms of the household labour force survey. It says that “The household labour force survey is a nationwide quarterly survey and is the official measure of employment and unemployment in New Zealand. It has been providing the only comprehensive and ongoing picture of the labour force since it began in October 1985.” 
Hon David Parker 
: Does the Minister still not understand that he is talking about employment and unemployment rather than jobs and that his statement was 60000 extra jobs? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I think the member is dancing on the head of a pin. I know he is trying very hard to talk down the New Zealand economy but fundamentally the difficulty with the Statistics New Zealand linked employer-employee data set is that it captures only PAYE employees and does not actually capture other people who are employed in the economy. It is quite clear. 
Hon David Parker 
: Does he understand that New Zealanders are becoming disappointed that National is not meeting its election promise to create 170000 more jobs and is this the reason why it has removed from the website the banner advertising that promise? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Actually we are right on track at the moment with those job numbers as per the Budget a couple of years ago and it is very important that we note that. I appreciate also that it is a challenging environment and that continues to be the case because of the global financial crisis and I also appreciate that the member Parker is absolutely disappointed at all signs of positive growth in the New Zealand economy. But I can repeat for him that 57000 more people have a job now than did 2 years ago. I know he finds that disappointing.