Westpac Employment Confidence Index Steady at 87.4 points in Sep

Westpac writes in the accompanying commentary: "The latest Westpac McDermott Miller survey shows that New Zealanders remain worried about the state of the labour market, with jobs hard to come by and earnings growth still weak. For this quarter's survey we included some additional questions about how people's employment situation has changed in the last three months, broadly coinciding with the expiry of the Government's wage subsidy scheme. The results suggest a substantial rise in job losses over that time."

• "The Westpac McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index was little changed at 87.4 in September, following a sharp drop in June. The survey was held in early September, when the country was at Covid-19 Alert Level 2 (with additional restrictions in Auckland). That's not too different from conditions during the last survey in early June, with the country moving down from Level 2 to Level 1 near the end of the survey period. "