Distance to mean in-work poverty rate (percentage points)
Figure 8. Occupation and in-work poverty rate
15
12
9
6
3
0
-3
-6
Total Main Total Main Total Main Total Main Total Main Total Main Total Main Total Main
earner
earner
earner
earner
earner
earner
earner
earner
Profesionals
Managers
Clerical & Technicans & Machinery Sales workers Community & Labourers
administrative
trades
operators &
personal
workers
workers
drivers
service
workers
Source: IDI 2019. Notes: In-work poverty rate as defined in Section 3 and presented relative to the sample average
(4.3 percent for the sample of 1,141,926 working household units defined by occupation; and 4.9 percent for the sample of
698,628 working household units defined by occupation of main earner). See Stats NZ (2018c) for more information about
the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification Occupations (ANZSCO) system.
Industry
In a similar vein to the method undertaken with occupation, industry identification is based on
whether at least one adult of the working household works in the respective industry. The sample size
of working households defined by industry is 1,089,360 and the average in-work poverty rate is
4.2 percent. As shown in Table 10, the two industries with the highest rates of in-work poverty are:
accommodation and food services (+4.7 percentage points compared to the mean) and agriculture,
forestry and fishing (+2.8 percentage points). The association between service sector employment
and poverty is, in general, well documented. The three (major) industries with the lowest in-work
poverty rates are the financial and insurance industry (-2.4 percentage points), the public
administration and safety sector (-2 percentage points) and professional, scientific and technical
services (-1.6 percentage points).
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