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Unemployment jumps to 6.7 percent

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Unemployment jumps to 6.7 percent

3News NZ

The main jobs growth has been in part-time positions (file pic)

The main jobs growth has been in part-time positions (file pic)

New Zealand's unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 6.7 percent in the first quarter after the labour force swelled to a three-year high as more people started looking for work in a tight market.

The unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points in the three months ended March 31, from a revised 6.4 percent in the prior quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand's household labour force survey.

That's higher than the 6.3 percent forecast in a Reuters survey of economists.

The labour force participation rate rose 0.6 percentage points to 68.8 percent, its second-highest reading on record and beating expectations of 68.3 percent.

The number of people employed grew 0.4 percent to 2.23 million in the quarter, ahead of the 0.3 percent growth forecast.

"We saw increases in both the number of people in work and the number out there looking for work in the March 2012 quarter," industry and labour statistics manager Diane Ramsay said in a statement.

"This meant participation in the labour force rose to the highest level since its peak just over three years ago."

The New Zealand dollar fell to 80.68 US cents after the report from 80.84 cents immediately before.

Most of the growth in unemployment was among women, who had a jobless rate at 7.1 percent, while jobs growth was primarily among men, with the employment rate rise half a percentage point to 70.2 percent.

The FIRST Union says the Government should be more proactive in creating jobs.

“Industries like textiles, wood should be filling export orders, firing up to meet the needs of the Canterbury rebuild and creating jobs, but the opposite is happening as a Government sits on its hands without any plan for jobs,” says general secretary Robert Reid.

“Our own union is currently dealing with actual and possible redundancies of almost 100 workers at carpet and yarn mills in Auckland, Whanganui and Oamaru."

Mr Reid says New Zealand "desperately needs to follow the lead of many others countries and have Government procurement arrangements that encourage domestic industries and jobs".

“There are no pro-job growth strategies coming from Government," says Mr Reid.

"Even the token support for jobs coming from the 2009 Job Summit, such as the nine-day fortnight, has gone, and the Government itself is contributing to job loss by laying off hundreds of public servants.

“These austerity policies are a recipe for disaster and we fear the job massacre will continue through winter."

The main jobs growth has been in part-time positions, which grew 2.5 percent in the quarter to a record-high 531,000.

Full-time employment shrank 0.2 percent in the period to 1.7 million, the lowest level since September 2010.

NZN / 3 News

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Comments

4/05/2012 8:58:27 p.m.

pDoy wrote:

To expect something positive in most aspect of our journey as a nation - we'd be a lot better off with a clear, transparent idea where our government is taking us! IF people up there in p0siti0ns are NOT doing their job as they ought to, (esp. deception of agenda here & there)- we can't expect good things coming out of it all! Come On, let's get real, most esp- our beloved P.M. & COHORTS !!!

4/05/2012 7:13:33 a.m.

Carlos wrote:

Its just seasonal. National are getting NZ moving in the right direction..no worries.

3/05/2012 6:43:40 p.m.

Blah wrote:

@KevinM - What makes one qualified to work for Work and Income in your clearly opinion? Coearly you are not qualified to make that judgement!!

3/05/2012 5:04:51 p.m.

Matty wrote:

David please refrain from your frequent personal attacks. Stick to debating the topics. I really don't believe some of your comments should make it past moderation. It's fine to tell people they're wrong, and why you believe that to be the case, but please don't call people names or make assumptions. In any ordinary forum these comments would be removed.

3/05/2012 3:25:36 p.m.

Chargone wrote:

well, This isn't going to change with out a radical shift in economic policy. the typical right wing rubbish just makes this worse. in boom times it increases the wealth for the rich, and in poor times (like now) guts the poor. typical left wing economic policy does nothing to actually improve the situation, instead draining the treasury to cover up the symptoms (by doing useful and necessary things, admittedly, and things we'd be worse off without, but it doesn't solve the actual Problem.) step one would be for the government to stop abdicating responsibility in favour of the insurance companies when it comes to CHCH though. the insurance companies have every motivation to not pay out, drag it out as long as possible, screw everyone over, end up forcing the government to pay for stuff Anyway just to keep things happening, then keep all the money. (there was a much better explaination of how this worked in one of the newspapers in christchurch a few days back...) first rule is this: while it may be cheaper and more 'efficiant' to specialize the nation's exports and import everything else, it's also step one for a deathspiral for your economy. the driving engine of economic growth is the replacement of imports with local production. trade policy should be based on this fact. instead, our trade policy under numerous governments has been to sign deals gutting as much of our local production as possible in favour of exporting more and more and more of a very few things, with out even any real plan for staying a dominant force in any of those areas in a changing global market (and based on the IMPOSSIBLE assumption that we will maintain such a position.) second is to get it through the heads of those in charge that the nation-state is not a meaningful economic unit.

3/05/2012 2:35:09 p.m.

Kevin M wrote:

Could Bennett & her CEO please provide any proof that jobs do not or would not come from the Invercargill Community Garden project instead of backstabbing every attemp at job creation or please vacate there positions.Same goes for there Winz unqualified staffers attempt at management. Recent communication with there offices suggest they are out of touch with reality.

3/05/2012 2:03:22 p.m.

matty wrote:

No david, right wing parties just realise the steps that must be taken to move the WHOLE country ahead. And a 6.7 % unemployent rate? Most countries would kill for that under current conditions. New zealands economy cant properly move on until the global economy does.. thats a fact of life, and that part atleast is out of JK's hands. So all we can do is implement small policy changes and some austerity.. oh yea, and also quit complaining.

3/05/2012 1:01:58 p.m.

David wrote:

@Sandra.. what is happening under National is companies are hiring cheaper staff so that they can layoff more expensive ones. The quality of staff in many professional areas is dropping dramatically, and business's are cheating in order to claim tax exemptions. Mid level managers (Keys buddies) stole 280 million dollars from the economy last year alone. Remember for all of his entire working life John Key never reached higher than the position of mid level manager.. until he took on the role of Prime Minister. But its his buddies that are causing so much damage to the economy, these facts were released last month in a report by the serious fraud office. However National last month were eager to take credit for a drop in the unemployment rate (even though it was directly related to students coming off temporary benefits and heading back to study). But when there is a rise in the rate.... its nothing to do with them and they have no influence. The one thing I have discovered about right wing parties is that they have no ethics, no morality... they live their lives in morally grey areas and often take credit for things they had nothing to do with... as we have seen so often previously with Key.

3/05/2012 11:48:50 a.m.

Bruce wrote:

John Key is a funny little man. and a liar.. He claims that NZs unemployment is not in his control and claims the financial situation in Europe is the cause on NZs high unemployment rate. If that so, then why is New Zealands growing unemployment, twice as high as Europes? NZs unemployment has steadily risen from its record lows in the Dec quarter of 2007, where NZs unemployment was only 3.5%. Stop this pretence Key. Looney Nat policies are NOT working.

3/05/2012 11:43:39 a.m.

Sandra wrote:

Well there are so many job's out there but we are all so pick in what we want. You do have full,part, casual,and shift work. So pepole just need not to lasy in what they wont. What happened to the day's of apprenticeship, now you have to get a loan to do a course what's in that, means your up to your eyebrows in debit before you even look for a job but without no experience, so you iether higher them and still have to train them.