The latest BNZ/SEEK employment report...>

NEW ZEALAND: The latest BNZ/SEEK employment report notes that "job advertising

posted a big bounce in January at 9.2% SA, which represents a very optimistic

print. The jump went a long way to restoring positivity, after the wobbly end to

'19. Indicative of this, the trend measure on job advertising expanded 0.8% in

Jan, while annual growth returned to the black,+1.9%, after a few months of

running slightly -ve. While monthly results are prone to be noisy over the

summer holiday season, there's no mistaking that Auckland was the region driving

job advertising higher in Jan. By industry, Gov't & Defence stood out amongst

January's risers, to once again be looking strong in a trend sense. Advertising

for full-time positions also staged a big rebound in Jan, after being a key

source of weakness over prev. months. As it turned out, employment was a bit

flat over the closing months of '19. Certainly, the Q4 measure from the HLF

Survey was flat. However, the unemployment rate dipped further, to 4.0%, as the

participation rate eased to 70.1%. Meanwhile, the new (and revised) monthly

employment indicator from Stats NZ exhibited a decent trend into the end of '19.

This suggests underlying expansion in the labour market."