But the employment figures are worse, with warnings the labour market shows \u201cno sign of picking up\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost 2.8% of jobs over the past year,\u201d Infometrics principal economist Nick Brunsdon said of Wellington City\u2019s employment numbers, while the national average was down 1.2%.<\/p>\n
The number of people on the Jobseeker Benefit had climbed to 7290, the highest in at least 10 years.<\/p>\n
Brunsdon warned while signs of the long promised green shoots are starting to emerge, Wellington\u2019s economy is not expected to bounce back quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would expect it\u2019s going to take a few quarters for that to flow through,\u201d he said of the employment and business figures.<\/p>\n
Employment in Wellington City was down 2.8% for the year to December 2025. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen some sort of almost structural changes in how the public sector<\/a> works and also not only for public sector employees, but also for the private sector, the consultants, the labour hire businesses that wrap around the public sector,\u201d Brunsdon said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s sort of an almost structural adjustment to that new normal of a slightly smaller public sector<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The report stated despite \u201cvarious indicators recording better outcomes, the economic recovery remains patchy and unconvincing in many industries\u201d.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s four quarters measured together have the Wellington economy contracting by 0.4% last year, the new figures show.<\/p>\n It comes off the back of Stats NZ data showing there are nearly 10,000 fewer jobs in Wellington than at the last general election<\/a>.<\/p>\n Asked about the capital\u2019s shrinking economy Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis said \u201cthere\u2019s no disputing that Wellington has been hard hit by the economic downturn.\u201d<\/p>\n Willis pointed to initiatives the coalition has undertaken to turn it around, saying the Government was making \u201csignificant investments in the capital\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey include expanding Wellington Hospital<\/a> and investing in the film sector<\/a>, major local roading projects<\/a> and building work on local schools,\u201d Willis, a lifelong Wellingtonian, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Willis also pointed to policy changes to support housing development and the return of international students.<\/p>\n Brunsdon said the cuts to the public service<\/a> were largely responsible for the capital\u2019s economic predicament.<\/p>\n He compared the city\u2019s response to the structural change in the public service to like a large factory closing down in a small town.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally when we look at these small towns there\u2019ll be a bit of a bit of a drop as the jobs that were in that factory fall away, and then if the town has good fundamentals, then over time new industries pop up and grow from there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI imagine that will be the case in Wellington, there\u2019s an awful lot of talent, it\u2019s a great city, and that\u2019s going to be an attractive position for businesses to grow from in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n Wellington Chamber of Commerce and Business Central chief executive Hayley Horan insisted conditions were starting to improve for local businesses, even if slower than previous recoveries.<\/p>\n Horan said the chamber is hearing \u201crealistic optimism\u201d from the capital\u2019s business community.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no glossing over the challenges of the past few years, but we are seeing a steady and genuine lift in business confidence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cMany organisations are investing and hiring again, even if with slightly more caution than in previous cycles.\u201d<\/p>\n Horan, who started at the organisation in November<\/a>, said the upcoming general election<\/a> spelt uncertainty for the local economy.<\/p>\n \u201cWith an election year ahead, there is understandable concern around continuity, businesses want to see strong bipartisanship on key issues such as infrastructure to ensure momentum isn\u2019t lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the employment figures are worse, with warnings the labour market shows \u201cno sign of picking up\u201d. \u201cWe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[806,1863,23485,29306,138,2841,127,10668,219,30271,169097,3180,111,139,3591,69,1118,28029,23487,1305,1355,1569,3258,61,52],"class_list":["post-310392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-as","tag-back","tag-bottom","tag-bounce","tag-business","tag-country","tag-despite","tag-economic","tag-economy","tag-figures","tag-floundering","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-numbers","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-rest","tag-scoreboard","tag-show","tag-starting","tag-starts","tag-struggles","tag-to","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis said her Government has made significant investments in the capital, but admits it has been hit hard. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell.<\/p>\n