Statistics New Zealand has this morning released its labour force data for the December quarter, with the unemployment rate rising to 5.2% from 4.9% on the back of more workers looking for jobs (thanks in part to record immigration). The key changes are outlined in the below table:
As shown above, employment rose 0.8% in the December quarter to be up 5.8% over the year, whereas the unemployment rate rose to 5.2%, helped by a 0.4% quarterly rise in the labour force participation rate (up 2.2% over the year).