{"id":486109,"date":"2026-06-19T22:41:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/486109\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T22:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:41:43","slug":"small-business-productivity-continues-to-lag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/486109\/","title":{"rendered":"Small business productivity continues to lag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand&#8217;s small business productivity has slipped and remains below the long-term average, according to newly released findings by Xero.<\/p>\n<p>Xero said in the March quarter, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/business\/597837\/every-time-you-hire-the-wrong-person-it-costs-20-000-here-s-how-to-get-it-right\" class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">small business labour productivity<\/a> averaged $74 per hour worked, down from $75.30 per hour in the December period.<\/p>\n<p>It was broadly in line with the prior six months, but was below the long-term average of $76.30 per hour.<\/p>\n<p>The data calculated the dollar amount produced per hour worked for a typical worker in a small business.<\/p>\n<p>Xero country manager Bridget Snelling said the lack of meaningful improvement remained a concern.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s disappointing we&#8217;re not seeing the kind of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/business\/597712\/less-than-a-third-of-small-and-medium-businesses-still-operating-10-years-later-stats-nz\" class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">improvement needed<\/a> to lift the small business economy,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Productivity per employee also eased, averaging $9168.90 per employee in the March period, down from $9389.30 in the previous quarter, and sat close to the long-term average of $9137.00.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For small business owners, improving productivity isn&#8217;t just an economic concept &#8211; it&#8217;s a practical way to grow profits and lift wages, regardless of wider conditions,&#8221; said Snelling.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are clear opportunities here. Businesses that invest in the right processes, skills and digital tools are better placed to free up time, focus on customers, and drive growth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand also continued to trail Australia and the UK, which Xero said reinforced the scale of the challenge.<\/p>\n<p>It said while performance between Australia and the UK fluctuated in recent years, New Zealand remained consistently behind both.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Falling behind international peers like Australia and the UK is a reminder that lifting productivity needs to be a long-term priority,&#8221; said Snelling.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The encouraging part is that there are clear levers &#8211; from digital adoption to skills and process improvements &#8211; that can help close that gap over time. Our small businesses can&#8217;t afford to sit still, this needs to be a priority.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Xero said productivity levels varied significantly across industries.<\/p>\n<p>Manufacturing productivity led the way with $123.50 per hour, real estate at $120.40, and construction was at $103.70.<\/p>\n<p>Hospitality was at the bottom by a considerable margin at $30.60.<\/p>\n<p>Xero said regional productivity outcomes were also mixed, with manufacturing-focused Hawke&#8217;s Bay recording the highest productivity levels, while tourism-heavy Otago lagged behind other regions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand&#8217;s small business productivity has slipped and remains below the long-term average, according to newly released findings&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-486109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}