Unemployment drops 0.6%

The latest quarterly Household Labour Force Survey is here. The number of people in work had the largest increase since the HLFS started in 1986. Key stats:

• 2,234,000 people in work, up 38,000 from December.
• Unemployed down from 161,000 to 146,000
• Unemployment rate down from 6.8% to 6.2%
• Under 20 unemployment rate down from 30.9% to 25.6%
• Maori unemployment rate down from 14.8% to 13.9%
• Manufacturing jobs up by 6,600 (recall the “crisis in manufacturing” manufactured by the left)
• Total hours worked up 3.2% in the quarter
• NZ’s unemployment rate now puts it in 11th= out of 34 OECD countries, so in the top third. the average rate is 8.0%

Now the HLFS does bounce around a lot, but the strength shown here is consistent with other data. It is very easy to focus on the high profile job losses, and miss all the areas where jobs are being created. An employer losing 100 jobs is a big story but 10 employers taking on 10 more staff each flies under the radar.