Hi neighbour,

About one in 14 workers say they expect to lose their job or business by mid-2021, according to data released by Stats NZ on Tuesday.

A survey of employed people in the June 2020 quarter showed 7 percent felt there was a high or almost certain chance of losing their job or business within the next 12 months. At a national level this represented 185,000 workers.

A further 18 percent (468,000) felt there was a medium chance, while 4 percent (105,000) stated they did not know what their job security was going to be over the following year.

Most people surveyed said there was little or no chance of losing their job or business (71 percent or 1,859,000).

Small businesses have been vulnerable during the pandemic. Self-employed people who did not have staff or employees of their own felt more insecure about losing their business than employees felt about losing their job. Ten percent of self-employed people without employees reported low job security, compared with 6 percent of employees.

The household labour force survey (HLFS) June 2020 quarter was collected over a three-month period from April to June and asked employed people about their perceived job security over the next 12 months. During the collection period, New Zealand dropped from COVID-19 alert level 4 in April to alert level 1 by June.