Methodology
The main disadvantage of tracking a workforce using IRD data is that we cannot filter by occupation. This means that we will pick up administration staff when we may only be interested in tradespeople. This can be especially problematic when we are determining the proportion of female tradespeople, as the number of female administration staff in an industry can vastly outnumber the female tradespeople.
Access to the anonymised data used in this study was provided by Statistics New Zealand in accordance with security and confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act 1975, and secrecy provisions of the Tax Administration Act 1994. The findings are not Official Statistics. The results in this paper are the work of the authors, not Statistics NZ, and have been confidentialised to protect individuals, households, businesses, and other organisations from identification. Read our full disclaimer here.

