While MPs debate employment law changes in Parliament today, they're missing the bigger story already written in the numbers: self-employment in New Zealand just fell off a cliff.

Between 2023 and 2024, 98,442 self-employed Kiwis disappeared from the tax system (Source: Stats NZ (LEED), taxable-income-sources). That's not a gradual decline. That's a collapse.

Here's the contrast that should alarm everyone: from 2020 to 2023, self-employment grew every single year. COVID hit, lockdowns arrived, and New Zealanders went out on their own — consultants, tradies, small operators betting on themselves. By 2023, there were 5.66 million self-employed taxpayers, the highest number on record.

Then 2024 happened. The number dropped to 5.56 million — wiping out not just one year of growth, but falling below 2022 levels. It's the first decline in the dataset's history, and it's not small. Nearly 100,000 people who were working for themselves a year ago aren't anymore.

What happened? The data doesn't tell you directly, but the timing does. These are nominal figures — actual dollars, not adjusted for inflation. And inflation since 2019 has been roughly 20-25%. So while the self-employment count grew through 2023, the real purchasing power behind those earnings was being shredded. By 2024, enough people hit the wall.

Think about what it takes to give up on self-employment. You don't close your consultancy or pack up your tools because business is slightly slower. You do it because you can't pay your bills anymore. You do it because the gap between what you're earning and what everything costs became unbridgeable.

The government is focused on employment relations law — trial periods, union access, that kind of thing. But this data suggests the real crisis is simpler: working for yourself stopped being economically viable for 100,000 Kiwis in a single year. They didn't quit because of regulations. They quit because the math stopped working.

And here's what makes it worse: these are the people who usually absorb economic shocks. Contractors adjust their rates. Sole traders tighten their belts. They're the flexible layer of the economy. When 100,000 of them fold in 12 months, it's not a blip. It's a signal that the pressure on working New Zealanders — whether they're employed or self-employed — has reached a breaking point.

Parliament can debate employment law all it wants. But the data already shows what's happening on the ground: self-employment in New Zealand isn't growing anymore. It's collapsing.