A report issued by Statistics New Zealand in the Asian session this morning, Wednesday, August 2nd, showed that the unemployment rate rose to 3.6% in the second quarter ending in June, from 3.4% in the first quarter, while expectations had indicated a rise to 3.5%.
On the other hand, the underemployment rate reached 9.8% from 9.1%, the employment rate reached 69.8% from 69.6%, while the annual wage inflation reached 4.3%, down from 4.5%, which was the fastest rate since the data was published for the first time in 1993.
Quarterly employment growth was 1% in the second quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of 0.6%, compared to 1.1% in the first quarter, while annual growth was 4%, compared to 2.5% in the first quarter, with participation rising to 72.4% from 72%.
The slowdown in wage growth shows that the labor market has finally begun to weaken, which eases the pressure on inflation after the strong increases in interest rates from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and thus may support the continuation of the bank’s cessation of tightening monetary policy.
The New Zealand dollar retreated by about 60 points after announcing the numbers, to trade at 0.6105 levels against the US dollar, its lowest level in a month.
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01/11/2024
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