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Screen-print illustration of Victoria Esplanade gardens, Palmerston North City
Illustration generated with AI.

Manawatū-Whanganui (Manawatū-Whanganui). Council area

Copilot training in Palmerston North City

Palmerston North City teams handle council records, health services and freight information across the wider council area. Microsoft 365 Copilot exercises can follow a file from its owner through to a checked decision.1,9,12,10

Enquire Read the local brief

61.0% of Palmerston North City’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

Role typePalmerston North CityNZDiff (pts)
Desk-based 61.0% 63.6% −2.6
People-facing 11.7% 9.0% +2.7
Hands-on 27.3% 27.4% −0.1
Employed residents45,4202,622,534

About 27,700 people in desk-based roles. 2023 Census, counted where people live.

Rows 2 to 4: ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5, 6 / 4 / 3, 7, 8. Stats NZ 2023 Census, employed residents. Proxy per ILO 2025; not a forecast.
Residents
87,1002023 Census
Business locations
8,514Feb 2025, +4.6% since 2020
Employees (jobs here)
53,150at local businesses, Feb 2025
Self-employed or employers
10.8%of employed residents, NZ 16.2%
Towns with a page
21,000+ residents

What AI means for work in Palmerston North City

5 findings from Stats NZ data for Palmerston North City, and what each means for Microsoft Copilot training.

Workforce by occupation group, Palmerston North City against New Zealand

61.0% of employed residents in Palmerston North City work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. Desk-based roles live in Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel, which is where Copilot works. A broad rollout has plenty of people to benefit: plan the pilot group and the champions first.

Employed residents by occupation group, Palmerston North City and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation groupChartPeoplePalmerston North CityNZ
Managers 6,396 14.1% 18.3%
Professionals 12,312 27.1% 26.8%
Technicians and trades workers 5,706 12.6% 12.5%
Community and personal service workers 5,316 11.7% 9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers 5,172 11.4% 10.8%
Sales workers 3,843 8.5% 7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers 2,778 6.1% 5.9%
Labourers 3,912 8.6% 9.0%

Desk-based = ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5 and 6 (managers, professionals, clerical and administrative, sales): roles where AI assistance is most applicable. Broad proxy informed by ILO 2025; not measured adoption or an employment forecast. People-facing = major group 4. Hands-on = major groups 3, 7 and 8.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people; ILO, Generative AI and jobs: a refined global index of occupational exposure (2025).

Public administration: 12.5% of local jobs, 2.0× the national share

Top employer: health and social care, 9,010 jobs (17.0%). Heat cells mark industries over-represented against New Zealand. Plan Copilot use cases by department in the largest employers first.

Share of paid jobs by industry, Palmerston North City and New Zealand, February 2025
IndustryChartJobsShareNZ×
Health and social care 9,010 17.0% 12.0% 1.4×
Public administration 6,649 12.5% 6.4% 2.0×
Education 5,785 10.9% 8.5% 1.3×
Retail 4,696 8.9% 9.3% 0.9×
Construction 4,366 8.2% 8.2% 1.0×
Wholesale 3,483 6.6% 5.0% 1.3×
Manufacturing 3,187 6.0% 9.4% 0.6×
Hospitality 2,893 5.5% 7.2% 0.8×
Professional services 2,764 5.2% 8.3% 0.6×
Other services 2,241 4.2% 3.5% 1.2×

Share of paid employees at business locations in the area, by ANZSIC06 industry division. × is the local share divided by the national share.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Business locations +4.6% and employees 0.0%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 53,125 (2020) to 53,150 (2025), 0.0% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 8,142 to 8,514. Largest job gain: health and social care (+1,099). Largest loss: admin and support services (−737).

Business locations
8,1428,514 in 2025, from 2020
+4.6% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here)
53,12553,150 in 2025, from 2020
0.0% NZ +5.0%
Change in employees by industry in Palmerston North City, February 2020 to February 2025
IndustryChart20202025Change
Health and social care 7,9119,010+1,099
Finance and insurance 7791,146+367
Other services 2,0082,241+233
Admin and support services 2,5941,857−737
Education 6,4325,785−647
Retail 4,9344,696−238

Geographic units (business locations) and paid employees, February of each year. Small counts are randomly rounded by Stats NZ, so small changes can be noise.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Remote readiness: work at home and household internet

On-site sessions, at your workplace, usually suit teams here better than remote ones. We come to you.

12.7%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

91.1%

Households with internet access

New Zealand 90.5%

Main means of travel to work on census day, and access to the internet in occupied private dwellings.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Self-employed and employers: 10.8% (New Zealand 16.2%)

Most workers here are employees of organisations, the setting where Microsoft 365 Copilot rollouts are planned centrally, with licences, policy and champions.

10.8%

self-employed or employers

New Zealand 16.2%

Employed residents whose status in employment is employer, or self-employed without employees.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Towns in Palmerston North City

Each town has its own page and brief. Largest first.

Towns in Palmerston North City
TownResidentsDesk-based Chart Business locationsSince 2020
Palmerston North 78,000 60.6% 7,458 +4.1%
Ashhurst 3,240 57.2% 171 +16.3%
New Zealand4,993,92363.6%654,435+9.6%

Where Microsoft Copilot helps first in Palmerston North City

Public-service reporting and distribution both rely on versioned records. Staff can test whether a Word draft or Excel summary agrees with the file their team actually owns.1,9,12,10

Public administration

Set up a SharePoint council-report folder, draft a Word briefing and record who verifies each claim.1

Freight and distribution

Use an Excel movement register to prepare a Teams handover, with exceptions assigned to an operations owner.9,10

A council-area Copilot worksheet could start with approved SharePoint files, carry figures into Word and finish with a named sign-off step.1,9,12,10

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops in Manawatū-Whanganui

There is no public Copilot workshop in Manawatū-Whanganui on the calendar yet. Register interest below and we will tell you when one is scheduled. Organisations can book private training for their own staff at any time.

Register interest in a public workshop in Manawatū-Whanganui

Tell me when there is a workshop in Manawatū-Whanganui

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Elsewhere in Manawatū-Whanganui

Palmerston North Pano
Palmerston North Pano by Nathan Jones, CC0.

Microsoft Copilot training in Palmerston North City: questions

Which Microsoft 365 step could help a Palmerston North City team find precedent in approved council papers?

Council staff could ask Copilot to locate relevant decisions and commitments across approved council files before drafting an internal brief. It would replace separate document searches with a cited working draft for staff review.1

Who should review a Palmerston North City Copilot handover for freight and distribution?

The Palmerston North City freight and distribution record owner should verify the Excel or Teams source before sharing a handover.9,10

Can food research and education examples be considered together?

The council documents FoodHQ activity and UCOL’s Palmerston North campus; use approved material from each and keep their claims separate.12,13

Train your team in Palmerston North City

  1. ScopeHeadcount, sites, Microsoft 365 plan and licences, and the teams you want to start with.
  2. PlanWe propose a course, a pilot group and a format, and agree the files and meetings to use.
  3. TrainOn-site or over Teams, in Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams, with your own work.
  • In person
  • Remote
  • Half-day workshop
  • Full-day workshop
  • Team rollout

Independent training by TheColab. Not affiliated with Microsoft.

Enquire

Tell us about your team in Palmerston North City. We reply by email with a suggested course and format.

We use these details only to reply to you, and store them securely with TheColab. Privacy

Sources

Local research checked 29 September 2026. Population and business figures come from Stats NZ.