WELLINGTON, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's unemployment continued to grow, with more people remaining unemployed for longer periods, and unemployment rate remained near four-year high, the statistics department Stats NZ said on Wednesday.
New Zealand's unemployment rate rose to 4.8 percent in the September 2024 quarter, compared with 4.6 percent in the previous quarter, while wage growth has slowed, Stats NZ said.
Unemployment rate was the highest since December 2020. However, it was still below the Reserve Bank's expectations.
"The unemployment rate has grown over the last two years, rising from 3.2 percent in the September 2022 quarter to 4.8 percent this quarter," said Stats NZ labor market statistics manager Deb Brunning.
Underutilization rate, a broad measure of untapped labor market capacity that includes unemployed and underemployed people along with the potential labor force, was 11.6 percent in the September 2024 quarter, which compared with 11.8 percent in the June 2024 quarter, Brunning said.
Annually, the number of unemployed people increased 24.2 percent to 144,900, he said.
Employment rate fell to 67.8 percent in the September 2024 quarter, down from 68.4 percent in the June 2024 quarter and 69.3 percent in the September 2023 quarter, the statistics showed.
"Compared with last September quarter, there were about a third more people reporting they had left their last job through redundancies or business shutdowns," Brunning said.
All salary and wage rates increased 3.8 percent in the year to the September 2024 quarter, which compared with 4.3 percent in the year to the June 2024 quarter, he said. ■
