Labour market stats

Stats NZ has released:

The labour market is showing signs of improvement, Statistics New Zealand said today. Employment is growing slowly and unemployment is down from a year ago, but up slightly since the start of the year. Wage inflation continues to be restrained.

This is the first time Statistics NZ has released the full suite of quarterly labour market statistics on the same day. This is to give a more complete picture of the labour market.

It’s useful to have all three surveys out at the same time, so we do indeed get a more complete picture.

Employment continued to rise in the June 2013 quarter, following a positive March 2013 quarter. Over the June 2013 year, the number of people employed rose 0.7 percent in the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), while demand for workers from established businesses rose 1.9 percent in the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES).

And in the last quarter:

• The number of people employed rose 0.4 percent, while filled jobs rose by 0.8 percent, after adjusting for usual seasonal patterns.
• The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, up from 6.2 percent in the March 2013 quarter. 
• Annual wage inflation was 1.7 percent.
• Average hourly ordinary time earnings were up 0.2 percent over the quarter.

The latest quarter saw 8,000 more people in work, but also 5,000 more unemployed, as the labour force grew by 13,000.