Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland staged a strong economic comeback in 2022 and 2023 after pandemic-related setbacks according to a new report into the region’s economy, released today.

Launched by Auckland’s economic and cultural agency, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, the Auckland Economic Monitor 2024 provides comprehensive insights and commentary on Auckland’s macroeconomic performance over the past five years. It highlights pivotal trends, current challenges and opportunities for Auckland.

Positive finding #1: Auckland’s economy grew 10 per cent from 2019 to 2023, matching the national average. This was despite enduring longer and more frequent lockdowns compared to the rest of New Zealand during the pandemic period.

Positive finding #2: The average Aucklander earned $81,400 in 2023, which is 14.8 per cent greater than the average across the rest of Aotearoa. Earnings growth has kept pace with inflation since 2019.

Positive finding #3: In 2023, the region’s economy grew faster than the rest of the country, impressively generating $143 billion in GDP.

However, recent data suggests a marked slowdown in economic activity nationwide, and relatively low levels of confidence among businesses and consumers.

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The Auckland Economic Monitor will be produced annually through to 2026, an evolution of the Auckland Growth Monitor released in 2017 and 2018 by the agency’s forerunner, Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED).

Produced with support from PwC New Zealand, the report identifies trends in Auckland’s regional GDP, business performance, workforce, employment, business and consumer confidence, the visitor economy, and community and culture.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited Economic Development Director Pam Ford says the Auckland Economic Monitor 2024 stands out as the first holistic view and analysis of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland's economic journey through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Tātaki Auckland Unlimited is pleased to share this resource that fills a critical gap in data accessibility typically spread across multiple sources, bringing together five years of vital regional economic data into one comprehensive report. Launching this provides a meaningful opportunity to build a deeper understanding of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s economic performance over this period and in doing so, stimulates debate, discussion and investment about the future of the region.”

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited Head of Economic Transformation John Lavery says, “It’s important to acknowledge that Auckland, like the rest of country and much of the world, faces economic challenges and uncertainty with increased living costs and the battle to get inflation under control impacting demand in the economy. Despite this, insights from the Auckland Economic Monitor 2024 show the region’s focus on high-value services, a diverse economy and a skilled young workforce serve it beneficially. Auckland is well known for its diversified economy and the region’s resilience against economic shocks such as COVID-19 is evident in the data. The region has emerged robustly from the pandemic to face the cyclical challenges we are in the midst of.

“The report findings underscore Auckland's position as the economic powerhouse of Aotearoa. Our region serves as a hub for high-value services and stands as New Zealand's sole global city. Comprising 33 per cent of the nation’s population, Tāmaki Makaurau contributes 38 per cent to the national economy. This is much more than any other region and a unique position among developed nations.”

The launch of the report is timely given The State of the City, a benchmarking study on how Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland is performing compared to other global peer cities, is being released next month.

To access the Auckland Economic Monitor 2024 publication, please visit: aucklandeconomicmonitor.com. A full interactive microsite supporting the report will follow soon.

Additional findings from the Auckland Economic Monitor 2024

· Employment trends: While Auckland’s five largest employing industries (professional, scientific and technical services; construction; health care and social assistance; retail trade; and manufacturing) remain the same as before the pandemic, industries such as hospitality, logistics and arts and recreation saw subdued employment growth from 2019 to 2023 compared to the 2015 to 2019 period, while education, administration and support services (includes travel agency and tour arrangement services) and information media and telecommunications now employ less people than they did in 2019.

· Māori business: Māori play a critical role in our region’s overall economic landscape. Māori businesses employ 14 per cent of all Māori employees in Auckland, despite representing only seven per cent of total businesses.

· Workforce diversity: Auckland's workforce has significantly diversified since 2019, with growing numbers of Asian, Māori and Pacific peoples and fewer European workers.

• Exports: In the year to March 2023, Auckland’s exports grew by 16 per cent, surpassing the increase across the rest of New Zealand of 11 per cent. However, Auckland’s total exports were still 10 per cent below 2019 levels, while exports from other regions in New Zealand have rebounded more swiftly.
• Visitor economy: The year to March 2024 saw 2.2 million international visitor arrivals, an increase of 48.7 per cent on the previous 12 months but still down 13.6 per cent compared to year ended March 2020.
• Community and culture: Auckland is the world’s largest Polynesian city, with Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest Māori population and more than 275,000 Pacific peoples. Māori and Pacific peoples are significant contributors to natural population growth, accounting for nearly half of births in Tāmaki Makaurau over the past five years.
• Emissions: Despite contributing more than 37 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP in 2022, Auckland produced 13.9 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions.
• Living costs: Housing costs have increased, through high interest rates, rental costs, and higher costs for construction, rates and utilities. At the same time, incomes have been increasing steadily and this has helped offset the impact of increasing prices on many households.
• Industrial land: Industries which require industrial zoned land are still a considerable source of jobs in Tāmaki Makaurau and benefit from co-location in industrial employment areas given their interdependencies.

Auckland Economic Monitor 2024 focus and information base

The 2024 Auckland Economic Monitor report focuses on what Auckland’s economy looks like today, and how it has changed in the five years since the last Monitor report was published in August 2018.

The information provided in this report is primarily sourced from StatsNZ and Infometrics, with some specific metrics taken from other sources.

The report contains some data up until June 2024, while other metrics are only available for the year ended March 2023. Although this inherently means that some of the ‘current’ data is more than a year old, effort has been made to provide additional commentary that reflects more recent trends or estimates in these instances.

About Tātaki Auckland Unlimited

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited is Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s economic and cultural agency committed to making our region a desirable place to live, work, visit, invest and do business. www.aucklandunlimited.com

About The State of the City

The State of the City report is an annual benchmarking project to better understand how the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland region is faring on a global scale. The report was initiated in 2023 by Committee for Auckland in partnership with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited and Deloitte, and is part of a three-year study.

The report is based on more than 100 global city benchmarks. It looks closely at Auckland’s performance among a group of 10 international cities of broadly comparable size, location and liveable reputation – including Brisbane, Helsinki and Vancouver.

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