NZ jobless rate rises to 6.7%, labour force grows

BUSINESSDESK: New Zealand's unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to the first quarter after the labour force swelled to a three-year high as more people started looking for work in a tight jobs market. 

The kiwi dollar fell after the data was released.

The jobless rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 6.7% in the three months ended March 31, from a revised 6.4% in the prior quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand's household labour force survey released today.

That is higher than the 6.3% forecast in a Reuters survey of economists.

While the number of unemployed people climbed 6.1% to 160,000, the labour force participation rate rose 0.6 percentage points to 68.8%, its second-highest reading on record and beating expectations of 68.3%.

The number of people employed grew 0.4% to 2.23 million in the quarter, ahead of the 0.3% growth forecast.

"We saw increases in both the number of people in work and the number out there looking for work in the March 2012 quarter," industry and labour statistics manager Diane Ramsay said.

"This meant participation in the labour force rose to the highest level since its peak just over three years ago."

The New Zealand dollar fell to 80.68 US cents after the report from 80.84 cents immediately before.

Most of the growth in unemployment was among women, who had a jobless rate at 7.1%, while jobs growth was primarily among men, with the employment rate rise half a percentage point to 70.2%.

The mixed data comes after euro-zone jobs figures showed that region's unemployment rate hit a 15-year high 10.9% in the March quarter, and ahead of US non-farm payrolls, where economists are picking the world's biggest economy added 175,000 jobs last month.

Local government figures earlier this week showed tepid wage inflation in the first quarter and flat jobs growth in the Quarterly Employment Survey.

New Zealand's jobs growth has been in part-time positions, which rose 2.5%in the quarter to a record 531,000.

That follows on from the December quarter, which showed a 3.2% pick-up in part-time work, which stoked the jobs market at the tail-end of last year.

Full-time employment shrank 0.2% in the period to 1.7 million, the lowest level since September 2010.

The level of under-employment, which is part-time workers who would like to work more hours, rose to 2500 to 107,600 people in the quarter.

The number of seasonally adjusted hours worked in the quarter rose 0.1% to 73.88 million in the quarter.

The arts, recreation and other services industry showed the biggest gain in people employed, rising to 139,900 from 126,200 in the December quarter, followed by 3200 gains in the transport, postal and warehousing; and rental, hiring and real estate services industries.

The number of people employed in construction fell to 174,600 from 178,800, while education and training fell to 192,900 from 199,300.

Youth aged 15 to 24 not in employment, education or training rose to 13.6% in the quarter from 13.1% in the December quarter.

Auckland unemployment climbed to 7.9% from 6.7% in the prior quarter, with an increase in the participation rate to 69.1% from 68.7%.

The Manawatu-Wanganui region had the highest unemployment rate at 8.9%, while Southland joblessness was the lowest at 4.4%.

The rate of unemployed Pacific people rose to a record 16% from 13.8% in December, while Maori unemployment was at 13.9% from 13.4%.

New Zealand's unemployment rate was the 12th lowest with Iceland, behind Germany's 5.7%, and ahead of Chile's and the Czech Republic's 6.8%.