Statistics NZ says a third of employed people worked some time from home during a week it surveyed in the September quarter

Almost 900,000 people worked from home during the September quarter, according to the latest employment data out of Statistics New Zealand.

Using its Household Labour Force Survey, Stats NZ has collected data on where people work in their main job since the June 2020 quarter.

The latest survey found 898,700 people worked from home for some or all of the time in the week before being surveyed for the September 2024 quarter.

Stas NZ said that figure was 33.2% of employed people who worked that week and comprised 240,000 remote workers who worked exclusively from home, and 651,800 hybrid workers, who worked both from home and another location. 

According to Stats NZ, 2.4 million people worked outside of home during that reference week.

This included both hybrid workers and 1.8 million who worked only outside the home while 208,500 employed people were away from their main employment. 

Stats NZ’s Business Operations Survey which was published in March earlier this year showed the top three industries with staff working from home on a given work day:

• Information media and telecommunications where 27% of staff worked from home
• Financial and insurance services where 20% of staff worked from home
• Professional, scientific, and technical services where 20% of staff worked from home

1 in 6

In October, Stats NZ released data on population, dwelling, and housing highlights from the 2023 Census, revealing that around 1 in 6 workers in New Zealand worked from home.

According to the 2023 Census, the number of people mostly working from home increased by almost 60% between 2018 and 2023.

In 2023, people who worked mostly from home made up 17.7% of the employed census, or 464,130 people.

That’s compared with 11.9%, or 291,234 people, who worked mostly from home in 2018.

Stats NZ said the Wellington and Auckland regions have had the highest growth in people who mostly worked from home since 2018, with the number in both regions more than doubling. 

“In 2023, 158,658 people mostly worked from home in the Auckland region, up from 72,099 people in 2018, while Wellington went from 24,909 people to 56,016 people,” Stats NZ said.

Public Services Minister Nicola Willis is keen for flexible work to not be the default option for public servants and told government department bosses in September to bring more of their employees back into the office five days a week.