Despite National’s fiddling the figures on the way unemployment is counted, the unemployment rate is on the rise again:
New Zealand unemployment rate jumps unexpectedly
A large number of people entering New Zealand’s workforce has pushed the unemployment rate back above 5 percent.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.2 percent in the three months ended December 31 from a revised 4.9 percent in the September quarter, Statistics New Zealand said. Economists had been expecting the unemployment rate to ease back to 4.8 percent.
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The participation rate was an all-time high of 70.5 percent. While recent changes to methodology means comparisons with earlier periods aren’t easy to make, the working-age population has been bolstered by record migration.
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The recently added underutilisation rate, which seeks to measure the potential labour supply, was at 12.8 percent up from 12.2 percent in September. The increase came from more people being unemployed and more people actively seeking work but not currently being available to work. …
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