Almost Half of New Zealand Workers in 2021 Received a Government Wage Subsidy

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern holds up information on COVID-19 alert levels during a press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 21, 2020. Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Almost half of New Zealand’s working population received at least one COVID-19 wage subsidy during the past two years, the Ardern government revealed in a new report.

Excluding sole traders, 47 percent of New Zealand’s labour force, or 1.2 million employees, received a wage subsidy in 2021, down from 62 percent in 2020.