Published: 11 August 2005
Unemployment fell 6 percentage points to 3.6% (actual, not seasonally adjusted) in the June quarter after rising 7 points in the March quarter.
The labour force participation rate, after being below 67% for most of last year, climbed to 68.3% iM the December quarter but has since fallen to 67.9% in March then 67.2% in June.
In the Auckland region, the unemployment rate fell 8 points to 3.4%. It was down at this level in September 2003 and got down to 3.3% in the December 2004 quarter.
Statistics NZ said the seasonally adjusted rate fell 2 points to 3.7% in June: “The seasonally adjusted household labour force survey results for the June quarter show a continuation of the tight labour market conditions experienced at the end of 2004. The number of people employed rose and unemployment decreased, resulting in a reduction of 0.2 of a percentage point in the unemployment rate to 3.7%. New Zealand now has the lowest unemployment rate within the group of OECD countries that have standardised unemployment rates.
“While both male & female employment rose, most of the overall movement was due to an increase in female employment, which was driven by a rise in female full-time employment. The increase in total full-time employment is reflected in the 2.9% increase in actual hours worked. There was very little movement in part-time employment levels.
“The working-age population increased by 8400 (0.3%) but growth continues to slow, both on a quarterly & an annual basis. This is reinforced by a slowing in net gains from permanent & long-term migration. The total labour force also grew by 0.3% while the number of people not in the labour force increased by 0.1%. This resulted in a slight increase (0.1 of a percentage point) in the labour force participation rate to 67.7% which, with the December 2004 quarter, is the equal highest rate recorded.
“In summary, the gradual slowing of growth in the working-age population, combined with the continuing growth in employment, indicates a further reduction in the capacity of the labour market to meet employers’ demand for labour. Meanwhile, employment is at the highest level recorded by the survey and the unemployment rate is the 2nd lowest rate recorded.”
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