WELLINGTON, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- There are now 2,690 big businesses that employ more than 100 staff in New Zealand, nearly 1,000 or 58 percent more than 20 years ago, the statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.

Over the 20 years to February 2020, the total number of enterprises in New Zealand increased by 49 percent to 557,680, Stats NZ said.

"At February 2020, the businesses with more than 100 employees engaged a total of nearly 1.13 million people or 48 percent of all employees," business register manager Stuart Pitts said in a statement.

This represents a slightly higher share of employees compared with a 46 percent share 20 years ago, Pitts said.

The New Zealand businesses on average are still relatively small. The average number of employees in a New Zealand enterprise has consistently been below five throughout the past 20 years, he said.

"Historically, over two-thirds of New Zealand enterprises haven't had any paid employees, partly influencing these low averages," Pitts said, adding these businesses are usually operated by owners themselves without the assistance of any paid employees.

At February 2020, 73 percent of enterprises had no paid employees, an increase from 66 percent 20 years ago, statistics showed.

For enterprises with employees, or "employing enterprises," the average number of employees went up from 12.6 per enterprise 20 years ago to 15.2 at February 2020, Stats NZ said.

At February 2000, manufacturing was the industry that had the highest number of enterprises, which were 700, engaging 50 or more employees. While that increased slightly to 780 enterprises at February 2020, it said.

The education and training industry managed to take the lead with 800 enterprises engaging 50 or more employees, a 57 percent increase from February 2000, the statement said. Enditem

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