March 17, 2015
Age, education puts Maori behind in self-employment
A report has found Maori were half as likely to be self-employed as the total population.
Analysis of 2013 census data by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment found just 10 percent of Maori were self-employed, compared to 19.8 percent of non-Maori.
This could be because Maori are relatively younger, with lower qualification levels than other New Zealanders.
More than 21,000 Maori ran their own business, of which two thirds were sole traders and 6800 were employers.
The total self-employed for all ethnic groups was 365,000, including almost 130,000 employers.
Over 60 percent of self-employed Maori work in the service sector, a quarter are in the goods-producing sector and 11 percent in the primary sector.
The self-employment rate differs by region, being highest in the South Island excluding Canterbury at 11.8 percent and lowest in Gisborne and hawkes bay at 7.5 percent.
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