Unemployment low as wages rise

The unemployment rate was 3.2 per cent in the three months to the end of December 2021, a slight drop from 3.3 per cent in the previous quarter.

The latest figure from Stats NZ is a record low in the Household Labour Force Survey, which started in 1986.

The underutilisation rate, which measures those who are under-employed, stayed at 9.2 per cent in the final quarter of last year and the employment rate was also unchanged at 68.8 per cent.

Becky Collett, pictured, work and wellbeing statistics senior manager at Stats NZ, says: “The labour market continued to show the tightness we saw in the September 2021 quarter, with both unemployment and underutilisation rates remaining low.”

Average ordinary time hourly earnings rose from $35.25 to $35.61 in the December quarter, while the labour cost index recorded a 2.6 per cent increase in wages for the year.

The quarterly employment survey showed average weekly earnings increased 1.8 per cent over the quarter and by 5.7 per cent over the year to $1,391.60 for full-time equivalent employees.

Stats NZ also says filled jobs increased 4.2 per cent in the year and the labour force participation rate was 71.1 per cent, which was lower than in the September quarter but 0.8 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

The number of unemployed people now stands at 93,000, a drop of 34.2 per cent from a year ago when figures peaked because of the impact of Covid-19.