{"id":280693,"date":"2026-02-04T18:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/280693\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:17:07","slug":"new-zealand-records-highest-joblessness-rate-since-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/280693\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Records Highest Joblessness Rate Since 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> (<a style=\"color:black\" href=\"https:\/\/menafn.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MENAFN<\/a>) New Zealand&#8217;s jobless rate climbed to 5.4 percent during the December 2025 quarter, marking the highest level recorded since September 2015 when it reached 5.7 percent, Stats NZ announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The quarter-on-quarter increase from 5.3 percent represents a continuation of labor market weakening, the statistics department confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Unemployed individuals grew by 5,000 to reach 165,000 throughout the period, even as both employment figures and workforce participation expanded, Stats NZ reported.<\/p>\n<p>Labor force participation surged to 70.5 percent, driven by 19,000 additional workers entering the job market during the quarter, according to the agency.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We saw higher levels of engagement in the labor market as both employment and unemployment increased,&#8221; said Stats NZ macroeconomic spokesperson Jason Attewell.<\/p>\n<p>Women accounted for approximately 20,000 new labor force entrants, with 16,000 securing employment compared to the preceding quarter, data revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Female employment gains concentrated heavily in managerial and professional categories, while clerical and administrative positions contracted, Stats NZ noted.<\/p>\n<p>The December 2025 quarter concluded with an employment rate of 66.7 percent, an underutilization rate of 13 percent, annual wage inflation at 2 percent, and average hourly earnings reaching 43.99 New Zealand dollars (26.59 U.S. dollars), the agency stated. <\/p>\n<p><a style=\"color:black\" href=\"https:\/\/menafn.com\/1110693429\/New-Zealand-Records-Highest-Joblessness-Rate-Since-2015\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>MENAFN04022026000045017169ID1110693429<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<p> Legal Disclaimer:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/menafn.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MENAFN<\/a> provides the<br \/>\n              information \u201cas is\u201d without warranty of any kind. We do not accept<br \/>\n              any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images,<br \/>\n              videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information<br \/>\n              contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright<br \/>\n              issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(MENAFN) New Zealand&#8217;s jobless rate climbed to 5.4 percent during the December 2025 quarter, marking the highest level&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-280693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}