Maori business prime source of Maori jobs

New research has identified more than 10,000 Māori businesses and found valuable insights into what makes them different.

Te Puni Kōkiri deputy secretary for strategy Hamiora Bowkett says the project arose out of the government COVID-19 response, when he and other officials realised they lacked data on how the pandemic may affect Māori business.

Te Matapaeroa draws on a number of government databases, adding another 8800 businesses where Māori are the majority shareholders to the 1,300 businesses which Statistics NZ had already identified as Māori.

A further 14,700 were identified as Māori sole traders and 10,200 businesses were classified as significant employers of Māori.

Mr Bowkett says as the Government looks to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic, knowing where Māori are in business and in jobs makes it easier to target support.

It also found Māori businesses employ Māori at three times the rate of non-Māori.

"We're actually really encouraged by getting that evidence Māori businesses are more likely to employ Māori people. We might have always suspected that but that gives us another mirror into if we want to help our Māori businesses retain Māori people, knowing that is a quantifiable fact is really helpful in that regard," Mr Bowkett says.

More research is needed, including into the reasons Māori businesses don't seem to be as profitable as other businesses.

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