Wellington has seen nearly 10,000 job losses since the 2023 general election. Photo / Mark Mitchell
There are nearly 10,000 fewer jobs in Wellington than at the last general election, according to Stats NZ.
Data from the Government’s statistics agency showed that in the final quarter of 2023 there were 169,782 jobs in Wellington City, the area excluding other cities in the region such as Porirua and the Hutt cities.
The figure at the end of the third quarter of 2025 stood at 159,851, a reduction of 9931 jobs.
The political scrap over the number of job losses in the capital has been complicated by the method used to code where a job is actually based. A previous estimate reckoned nearly 20,000 jobs had been lost in just a year, but Stats NZ backed away from those numbers and revised them.
The exaggerated figure was because many employers, particularly those in the public service, were headquartered in Wellington. Some jobs that were not based in the city were incorrectly coded as Wellington-based for statistical purposes, exaggerating early estimates of the downturn.
An analysis by Council of Trade Unions (CTU) economist Craig Renney, who is Labour’s candidate in the capital’s Wellington Bays electorate, reckoned that if job numbers had grown at the same rate they had between 2015 and 2023, there would be 14,000 more jobs than there are currently in the capital.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis brooked no criticism.
“The previous Government, for which Mr Renney was an adviser, ran the economy into the ditch. This Government is getting the economy out of that ditch.
“That’s not a task that can be accomplished overnight, but the economy is now on the up, and as the economy recovers, job opportunities will grow,” Willis said.
Renney told the Herald the figures showed the effects of the recent downturn on the local job market.
“There are now 9931 fewer filled jobs in Wellington City, which is a very significant fall because the long-run trend going back to 2015 had been for slow but quite consistent growth in the number of filled jobs,” he said.
“What you are seeing here is the impact of both public sector job losses, which have been much more significant in Wellington City, but you’re also seeing the downstream effects of that on the regular economy, and you’re seeing the impact of the downturn of the economy more generally that started in early 2024.”
Renney noted that average annual wage growth had slowed, with the first quarter of last year recording a negative figure for the first time since the pandemic.
“This suggests two things. Firstly, wages are growing at a much slower rate right now, probably less than inflation for many people in Wellington. Secondly, it suggests that where new jobs are being created, they are being offered at lower rates of pay than those being lost,” he said.
Renney said the stats showed the lack of a plan for Wellington.
“There’s been no plan to deliver economic growth to Wellington to help support new jobs, or to help tackle the downstream effects of those job losses,” he said.
Figures from the Public Service Commission, which merged the commission’s own data with those collected by Stats NZ, showed that in the greater Wellington region (the area wider than just Wellington City) jobs in the core public service as well as the health, education, and other public sector workforces, were down between June 2024, the last month covered by a Labour Budget, and June 2025.
However those workforces were still larger than their June 2023 levels, with the exception of the state-owned enterprise workforce, which is slightly smaller.
The private sector bore the brunt of the culling, with that data showing in just two years, nearly 10,000 private sector jobs in the region were lost, with private sector employment hovering around 2019 levels.
House prices in the region have collapsed more than 30%.
Willis said the Government wanted “Wellington to succeed” and talked up “significant investments in the capital”.
“They include expanding Wellington Hospital and investing in the film sector, major local roading projects and building work on local schools.
“We have also made policy changes to support housing development and the return of international students, and we have introduced Investment Boost and reduced red tape to make it easier for businesses to invest, grow and create jobs,” she said.
She also said the capital was starting to show signs of a sentiment lift.
“[The] ANZ-Roy Morgan NZ Consumer Survey shows consumer confidence at its highest level since August 2021, with Wellington experiencing the biggest lift in the country by 18 points to 109,” she said.
“Responsibility for the tough times experienced by Kiwis in recent years rests with the previous Government. It exacerbated the challenges presented by the Covid pandemic with reckless, wasteful spending that continued long after other countries stopped spending, and long after officials advised Labour to put away the Government’s chequebook.”