The chair of next week's job summit, Stock Exchange chief executive Mark Weldon, says the contraction in business investment is very worrying as the recession continues to deepen.
Mr Weldon told an audience of business people in Wellington on Friday the job summit would consider lifting the economy's performance as well as ways to save jobs.
He says business investment is expected to shrink by a quarter this year, and he suspects it will be worse than that.
Mr Weldon says that has serious consequences for many smaller firms who supply goods and services to bigger companies.
Mr Weldon says foreign governments are throwing money at the problem to keep people in jobs, however the summit will avoid this by coming up with measures to boost productivity as well as keep people in jobs.
He says this can be achieved by training workers rather than laying them off as the recession puts more pressure on employers to cut costs.
