Unemployment has held at decade highs as businesses have generally held on to staff, but been cautious about hiring because of weak demand and higher costs.<\/p>\n
The numbers also showed a marked rise in the number of long term unemployed – those out of work for a year or more – making up about 21.5 percent of the total, and the highest since mid-1994.<\/p>\n
Labour market spokesperson Abby Johnston said the level of employment had changed little from the previous quarter, but there had been changes to how people were employed.<\/p>\n
“Casual and fixed term roles increased over the year, while there was a shift towards part-time employment over the quarter.”<\/p>\n
The number of casual employees increased by nearly 20 percent over the year, and those in fixed term jobs rose 19 percent.<\/p>\n
Fewer participate in workforce<\/p>\n
The labour force fell by 1000 over the quarter, but was up 34,000 on a year ago.<\/p>\n
However, the number not in the labour force increased, as did the working age population, while the participation rate fell slightly.<\/p>\n
The level of underutilisation, including the unemployed and under-employed, used as a measure of slack in the jobs market, stayed at a 12-year high of 13.8 percent.<\/p>\n
The number employed fell by about 4000 in the quarter, but with 19,000 more people in work than a year ago.<\/p>\n
The number of people between 15 and 24 years who were unemployed, not in education or training increased to 14.1 percent from 13.8 percent.<\/p>\n
The regions with the highest unemployment were Northland at 8.3 percent, Auckland, Waikato, and Manawatu-Whanganui with rates above 6 percent. Most South Island regions were below 5 percent.<\/p>\n
The broad measure of wages showed overall growth remaining near a five year low of 2.1 percent.<\/p>\n
An alternate wages measure showed take home pay rose 3.3 percent compared to the 3.7 percent inflation rate.<\/p>\n
There was a drop in the number of hours worked, which Stats NZ noted may be connected to an increase in those saying it was for holiday reasons.<\/p>\n
Uncertainty and caution halt hiring – Willis<\/p>\n
National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said the numbers reflected uncertainty but would improve.<\/p>\n
![\"National's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/4JHLAB8_Media_23_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis<\/p>\n
RNZ \/ Nick Monro<\/p>\n
“The economy is strengthening but businesses have been understandably cautious about employing more people while oil prices remain high and the outcome of the New Zealand election remains unknown.”<\/p>\n
Willis was optimistic about a labour market improvement.<\/p>\n
“Recent business surveys have shown optimism and hiring intentions increasing and Treasury says 220,000 jobs are on the way.”<\/p>\n
She said that would be threatened by a Labour Party-led coalition.<\/p>\n
Unemployment was 4 percent and the underutilisation rate 10.8 percent when the National-led coalition took power in 2023.<\/p>\n
Council of Trade Unions president Sandra Grey called the unemployment rate a “shocking record” of the government’s management of the job market.<\/p>\n
“Long-term unemployment is at crisis levels … people in long-term unemployment make up 43 percent of total unemployed, the highest this rate has been since 1995.”<\/p>\n
Slow employment filter<\/p>\n
Economists’ forecasts had been for a steady or slight improvement in the state of the labour market.<\/p>\n
ASB senior economist Mark Smith said the weak numbers were consistent with uneven economic activity and recovery.<\/p>\n
“[The] figures confirmed that the economic recovery is only partly filtering through into labour demand, with a sizeable … fall in full-time employment … the fall in hours worked suggests that higher costs from the Middle East may be impacting economic activity.”<\/p>\n
He said the fall in workforce participation pointed to people finding it tougher to find work.<\/p>\n
![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/4JFQ290_westpac_senior_economist_michael_gordon_210920__ScaleMaxHeightWzI1MF0_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Michael Gordon<\/p>\n
Supplied \/ Westpac<\/p>\n
Kiwibank economists said they believed there was worse to come for the labour market with high oil prices adding to business costs and squeezing consumer spending.<\/p>\n
“We need a substantial reduction in business costs in order for the labour market to have a chance of a true revival.”<\/p>\n
Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon said the data was “soft” from the Reserve Bank’s point of view, with the labour market softer than expected, and wage growth constrained.<\/p>\n
“The doves on the policy committee will be encouraged in their view that there is limited scope for headline inflation shocks to pass through into second-round effects.”<\/p>\n
The RBNZ has said subdued wage growth is needed to reduce inflation pressures.<\/p>\n
The latest figures, released on Wednesday, had been expected to stay at around the same rate as growth in the workforce matches the jobs on offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unemployment rose 5.7% from 5.6%About 4000 jobs lost in quarter; labour force shrinks, participation fallsUnderutilisation rate steady at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-952109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}