Unemployment rate highest in more than a decade – labour market in crisis

PostSource: NZCTUToday’s unemployment rate of 5.6 percent is the highest rate in more than a decade and shows a labour market clearly in crisis says Sandra Grey, President of the NZ Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi. “The data shows that we had 171,000 people unemployed in the June quarter, and the last time the unemployment rate was this high was September 2015. Māori and Pacific Peoples unemployment rates are still double the rate of the general population. This is the broader measure of labour market capacity and tells us that the headline rate of unemployment is hiding the true scale of worklessness. Yet here we are with the unemployment rate at decade long highs, inflation at 4.1 percent, wages going backwards in real terms, and thousands more people on Jobseeker Support.