New Zealand’s jobless rate rose in the first quarter as the nation’s labour force recorded its biggest increase in 12 years and Auckland drove an increase in employment growth.
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Employment was up 1.2 percent on quarter – topping expectations for 0.6 percent and accelerating from 0.9 percent in the three months prior.
Statistics New Zealand’s labour market data for the three months ended March showed the unemployment rate lifting to 5.7%, above the 5.5% rate forecast by the Reserve Bank but in line with economists’ forecasts.
But the unemployment rate rose as well, to 5.7 percent.
Mr Joyce said the increase in the unemployment rate is due to a lift in the participation rate, not fewer jobs in the economy. That means 144,000 people were looking for work. The participation rate jumped to 69.0 per cent while employment rose 1.2 per cent.
Statistics New Zealand manager of labour and income statistics Mark Gordon said a significant increase in the size of our labour workforce has increased both the number of employed and unemployed people in the country.
Seasonally adjusted employment grew by 1.2 percent, or 28,000, in the first quarter to about 2.4 million people, or 65.1 percent of the working-age population, which climbed by 0.8 percent, or 29,000, to about 3.69 million in that time, government figures show.
There are 47,000 more people employed than a year ago.
Annual wage inflation, as measured by the labour cost index, increased to 1.6 per cent. Private sector wage inflation was up 1.8 per cent, and public sector up 1.4 per cent. For the rest of New Zealand, wage rate growth in the construction industry rose to 2.5 per cent, the highest annual increase since the series began in 2010.
Salary and wage rate growth (including overtime) in the Canterbury construction industry continued to ease, to 1.3 per cent, in the year to the March 2016, quarter.
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New Zealand’s labour market performed well during the first quarter of the year.
