New Zealand employment rose 0.1% in Q4, below expectation of 0.4%. Unemployment rate ticked down from 3.3% to 3.2%, slightly better than expectation of 3.2%. Labor force participation rate dropped -0.1% to 71.1%.
“The labour market continued to show the tightness we saw in the September 2021 quarter, with both unemployment and underutilisation rates remaining low,” work and wellbeing statistics senior manager Becky Collett said. “This quarter’s unemployment rate is now the lowest rate recorded since the HLFS series began in 1986.”
