NEW ZEALAND
Source: MNI - Market News/Refinitiv
- The Q3 drop in employment was the sharpest since Q1 2009 outside of the pandemic period and was a crisis time. The softening of the economy is not only reducing labour demand but now seems to be resulting in job shedding.
- Statistics NZ notes that “compared with last September quarter, there were about a third more people reporting they had left their last job through redundancies or business shutdowns.”
- The data breakdown reflects weak growth with full-time employment down 0.7% q/q and 0.7% y/y after -0.2% & flat in Q2. Part-time is stronger as it was flat on the quarter and up 1.0% y/y but down from 1.2% y/y. There is some labour hoarding still but hours are being reduced to reflect less demand. They were down 1.1% y/y after -0.7% y/y.
- The unemployment rate rose 0.2pp to 4.8% lower than the RBNZ’s 5% August forecast, but it is still the highest since Q2 2017 outside of Covid. The participation rate fell 0.5pp to 71.2%, which may reflect some discouragement, but Statistics NZ says that the main reasons were leisure, studying/training, and illness.
NZ unemployment rate %
Source: MNI - Market News/Refinitiv
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