In phenomenally good news for the country and the Government and pretty well everyone but the National Party the country’s unemployment rate has, checks notes, declined. From Liam Dann at the Herald:
Unemployment dropped to 4 per cent in the June quarter, official labour force data from Stats NZ shows.
Defying expectations that is a fall from the March quarter’s 4.2 per cent.
Like everything else the actual data is more complex. Liam Dann has the details:
Stats NZ said the Covid effect appeared to have significantly dampened labour market activity which had impacted the unemployment number.
“About 650,000 people were away from their job, working fewer hours or less than they wanted, or were otherwise less active in the labour market in the June 2020 quarter due to reasons related to Covid-19 such as sickness or lockdown,” Stats NZ said today.
To provide context Stats NZ has provided an extended unemployment figure which includes those who did not meet the classification for official unemployment reasons related to Covid-19.
To be categorised as unemployed, a person must:
• not have a job,
• be available to start work, and
• have been actively seeking work in the past four weeks or be due to start a new job in the next four weeks.That figure was 4.6 per cent.
But given that the world is in a global pandemic I would take a figure of 4.6% any day.
And sure the economic crisis is still to wash through the economy and I can confidently say that things will get worse before they get better.
The political issue is, who are you going to trust to do their best to keep you in work? Jacinda or Judith?
The answer is very clear …
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