New Zealand jobless rate falls in Q2 to lowest since December 2008

The New Zealand jobless rate dropped in the second quarter of 2017. According to Statistics New Zealand, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.8 percent from 4.9 percent in the first quarter. This is the lowest jobless rate since December 2008, after the start of the global financial crisis, when it was 4.4 percent.

“In the June 2017 quarter, 3,000 fewer people were unemployed. The unemployment rate for women fell to 4.9 percent, with 10,000 fewer women unemployed – the lowest it’s been since March 2009”, said labour market and households senior manager Diane Ramsay.

The employment rate dropped to 66.7 percent in the second quarter of 2017 from 67.1 percent in the first quarter. The fall in employment follows six quarters in which employment rose. Meanwhile, the nation’s working-age population rose 0.5 percent to 3,801,000. This is the first quarter since September 2015 that employment growth was below population growth.

Filled jobs, gauged by the Quarterly Employment Survey rose 3 percent over the year to the second quarter. The professional, technical, scientific, administrative and support services, and the construction industries were the largest contributors to this rise.

The labor cost index in the year to June 2017 quarter rose 1.7 percent, up from 1.6 percent in the year to March 2017.