New Zealand Q3 Unemployment Rate Climbs To 6.0%

(RTTNews) - The unemployment rate in New Zealand came in at 6.0 percent in the third quarter of 2015, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday - in line with expectations and up from 5.9 percent in the three months prior.

The employment change was up 1.5 percent on year - missing forecasts for 2.5 percent and slowing from 3.0 percent in Q2.

On a quarterly basis, employment fell 0.4 percent versus expectations for an increase of 0.4 percent following the 0.3 percent gain in the previous three months.

"Over the year, most growth was in construction. The vast majority of this growth was in Auckland, as construction growth there continued to outpace Canterbury," labor market and household statistics manager Diane Ramsay said.

Average hourly earnings gained 0.9 percent on quarter, also shy of expectations for 1.1 percent and down from 1.2 percent in Q2.

At the same time, 11,000 fewer people were employed than in the June quarter. This was the first quarterly fall in employment in three years.

"Until recently, the labor market has been keeping pace with New Zealand's population growth, but in the past three months this has changed," Ramsay said. "This quarter also had the largest increase in the number of people outside the labor force since the March 2009 quarter."

Auckland (11,500 people) and Bay of Plenty (8,100 people) were the two largest contributors to annual employment growth.

Annual wage inflation, as measured by the labor cost index (LCI), remained at 1.6 percent, compared to annual consumer price inflation of 0.4 percent.

Labor costs for the private sector added 0.4 percent on quarter, missing forecasts for 0.5 percent - which would have been unchanged from Q2.

The participation rate was 68.6 percent - missing expectations for 69.3 percent, which also would have been unchanged from the second quarter.