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Unemployment rate falls 0.1% to 6.6% in March qtr from revised 6.7% in December; Employment rises 30,000, Stats NZ says

Unemployment rate falls 0.1% to 6.6% in March qtr from revised 6.7% in December; Employment rises 30,000, Stats NZ says

By Alex Tarrant

The number of people employed rose by 30,000 in the three months to March, the largest quarterly increase since mid 2008, primarily due to a rise in people entering part-time work, seasonally adjusted figures from Statistics New Zealand show.

The number of unemployed people dropped by 2,000 to 155,000, with New Zealand’s unemployment rate falling 0.1% to 6.6% in the March quarter, from a downwardly revised 6.7% in the December quarter (revised from 6.8%).

Economists surveyed by Reuters had been expecting a 0.1% fall in the unemployment rate to 6.7% from 6.8%.

The New Zealand dollar rose 30 basis points to 79.30 US cents immediately after the release, as the unemployment and employment figures came in stronger than expected. However, economists said the figures didn't change their views on when the Reserve Bank would reverse the March 10 cut in the Official Cash Rate. Most still expect a December or March quarter hike in the OCR.

The increase in employment in the March quarter was the greatest quarterly rise since the June 2008 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said.

'Create a job myself'

Annually, employment grew 39,000 – with equal growth in male and female employment. Contributing to this was an increase in the number of self-employed people by 26,300 during the year, Stats NZ said.

“There has also been a steady rise in trend employment since the September 2009 quarter. Together, these results indicate signs of continued strengthening in the labour market,” Stats NZ labour market statistics manager Diane Ramsay said.

The 6.6% unemployment rate meant New Zealand moved up to eleventh-equal with Israel in the OECD unemployment table from twelfth in December, above the Czech Republic at 7%. The unemployment rate in Australia is 5%, but is forecast to drop as low as 4.5% in the next two years as 500,000 jobs are created.

Participation rate rises

The labour force participation rate – those employed or officially unemployed – rose 0.8 percentage points to 68.7% of the total working age population in the March quarter from December. This was the highest participation rate since December 2008, Stats NZ said.

There were, 2,369,000 people in the labour force in the March quarter, up 28,000 (1.2%) from December. The working age population rose by 4,000 (0.1) over the quarter.

The number of employed people rose 1.4% to 2,214,000 during the quarter, Stats NZ said.

Primarily part-time employment

Part-time employment rose 4%, or by 19,000, in the March quarter from December, Stats NZ said. Full-time employment rose 0.5%.

Quake disruption

Meanwhile, Stats NZ said the earthquake that struck the Canterbury region on February 22 caused some disruption to interviewing for the March release.

"Statistics New Zealand suspended interviewing in parts of Canterbury, which meant we did not interview about 800 of the 2,200 Canterbury households in the survey sample over the March 2011 quarter," Stats NZ said.

"Since there was no interviewing in such a large area of Canterbury, any changes in labour force status as a result of the earthquake will not be observed in this quarter's results," Stats NZ said.

Politicians react

Minister for Social Development, Employment and Youth Affairs Paula Bennett said there were encouraging signs in the jobs market.

“It’s been a long haul since the recession, but many New Zealanders are now feeling more optimistic about the future,” Bennett said in a media release.

“What we’re seeing here is more jobs and more people in work, which are really encouraging signs but it’s a modest recovery,” Bennett said.

“While a drop in the unemployment rate and a rise in employment is good news, we’re yet to see the full effects of the Christchurch earthquake,” she said.

“The number of young people in work has risen by more than 4,200 over the last year to March and the number of young people Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET) has fallen steadily from 10.8% to 9.9%.

“The Youth Unemployment rate went up to 18.8% in the last quarter, but a further 4,200 also going into work is good news,” Bennett said, refering to figures for 15 to 24 year olds.

“Many young people have made smart decisions about staying in education, going into study, or moving to where the jobs are,” she said.

The Maori unemployment rate went from 15.5% to 16.1% in the March quarter, while Pacific Unemployment rates went from 13.5% to 14%. Pacific Unemployment rates dropped by 0.4% over the last year and while the Maori Unemployment rate has risen by 1.9%, the rate has continued to slow, Bennett said.

Economist reaction

ASB economist Jane Turner:

The number of people employed increased by more than expected over the March quarter, up 1.4%.  This resulted in the unemployment rate easing to 6.6% from 6.7% in Q4 (revised lower from the previous estimate of 6.8%).  Excluding Canterbury altogether from the survey revealed employment increased 1.8% over the quarter, suggesting the wider economy performed well over Q1.  Excluding Canterbury, the actual number of hours worked increased 1.4% over the quarter, and up 2.7% over the year.

Over the second half of 2010, employers had been very cautious about hiring new staff, opting instead to increase work load of existing staff.  Over Q1, it appears firms are finally confident enough to increase staff levels, by adding to part-time staff.  Indeed, increased part-time employment largely drove the increase in overall employment this quarter.  

While the impact of the February earthquake on Christchurch is not yet known (see below) it appears the September earthquake is having a severe impact on hours worked in the city.  Including Canterbury into the nationwide statistics, the actual hours worked is revised from a +1.4% gain to a 0.9% decline.  This is a significant difference, suggesting that many Cantabrians have had hours substantially cut back or are still not working at all (although technically still employed) as a result of the September earthquake.  Further supporting this, while actual hours worked declined 0.9%, the number of hours respondents reported as usually working still increased 1.2%.  This suggests the decline in actual hours work over Q1 is indeed usual and likely to be temporary.

Given we expect the February earthquake to have a more pronounced impact on employment, these figures are concerning.  When the impact of the February earthquake is captured in the survey over the next quarter we anticipate a fall in employment and a further decline in hours worked.

February earthquake impact not captured in today’s report

The February earthquake caused some disruption to interviewing for the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS).  Statistics New Zealand suspended interviewing in parts of Canterbury after the February 22 quake, meaning around 800 of the 2,200 Canterbury households in the survey sample were not interviewed over the quarter.  Because of this, any changes in labour force status as a result of the earthquake will not be observed in this quarter’s survey results.  Accordingly, we expect a fall in employment as a result of the February earthquake will show up in the Q2 HLFS.

Implications

There are mixed implications from today’s report.  On one hand, it is very encouraging to see how strong underlying labour demand was outside of Canterbury over the March quarter.  This suggests the wider economy is indeed finally gaining traction in the economic recovery.  However, it appears that the September earthquake may be having a larger impact on labour market activity in Christchurch than previously thought.  This does note bode well for future employment figures, given the greater extent of commercial damage caused by February’s earthquake.  

There are limited implications for the RBNZ from today’s data, given the Bank had pre-emptively cut the OCR by 50 basis points to 2.5%.  The scale of disruption to labour activity in Christchurch highlights the need to leave interest rates low until there is evidence of rebuilding activity getting underway in Christchurch.

JP Morgan economist Helen Kevans

Nonetheless, even in the absence of the earthquake-effect, the labour market data is renowned for its volatility. The unemployment rate oscillated widely throughout 2010, with difficulties in the seasonal adjustment process giving us false signals throughout much of the year.

The steady rise in the trend employment rate since September 2009 quarter suggests, however, that a true (albeit modest) recovery is underway in the labour market. Indeed, on an annual basis, trend employment rose by 39,000, or 1.8%, in 1Q. The trend unemployment rate also has remained fairly stable since 3Q09.

Furthermore, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate fell 0.1%-point from 6.7% (revised down from 6.8%) to 6.6% in 1Q (J.P. Morgan: 6.8%, consensus: 6.7%), with the sharp spike in employment growth managing to offset that in the participation rate. We had expected the participation rate to jump 0.3%-points in 1Q, so the 0.8%-point increase surprised on the upside. The participation rate rose to 68.7%, the highest rate since end-2008.

We expect the recovery in the labour market this year to be gradual. Indeed, in the most recent NBNZ survey, a net 6% of respondents expected to hire staff going forward, a turnaround from the net 3% expecting to shed staff in the last survey. Fewer respondents (a net 23%) now expect the unemployment rate to rise. We expect the unemployment rate will edge lower, albeit at a very slow pace over the next year, to approach 6% by mid-2012.

(Updates with JP Morgan comment, ASB reaction, govt reaction, chart, quake comments, NZ$ move).

The chart below tracks unadjusted figures from Statistics New Zealand.

Unemployment

Select chart tabs

Actual - not seasonally adjusted
Actual - not seasonally adjusted
Actual - not seasonally adjusted
Actual - not seasonally adjusted
Actual - not seasonally adjusted

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71 Comments

That'll be the exodus to aus but I still contend the reported rate is a cookery class effort.

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"Statistics New Zealand suspended interviewing in parts of Canterbury... in the survey sample over the March 2011 quarter.Since there was no interviewing in such a large area of Canterbury, any changes in labour force status as a result of the earthquake will not be observed in this quarter’s results. "

"The Household Labour Force Survey results are based on a representative sample of 15,000 households throughout New Zealand"

There's 1.8 million households here, for heavens sake! There has to be a more accurate way of stating this figure that just 'sampling' less than 1% of the population, and leaving out a big chunck if it becomes all too difficult? 

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Would you guys prefer if all the news was negative?

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This is Chicken-little-Hickey's show , and the bloggers are his little band of Gloomsterisers .............. Thought that you'd have cottoned onto this by now , SK .

....... whatever you do or say , don't  bring us up .

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After many unheaded warnings, doesn't the Fox eat the disbelieving animals, in the end?

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Yes ! ........ But Bernard would argue that couldn't happen again , because this time is different , the world as we know it really is coming to an end . ........ Derivatives / USA debts / Peak oil / Global warming / Don Brash ......

........ Cue Private Frasier ( Dad's Army )   : " We're all doomed , doomed I tell ye ! "

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You seem more than happy to hang around for all your bitching and whining.

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Only as much as I can .

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Which is an awaful lot.

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What answers did you put on the Survey, Westminster? Or perhaps the last one you got? In fact, have you been asked what the employment situation is in your household...ever? Do you even know anyone who has been asked? In fact I'd guess that even if you know someone who is unemployed, even they haven't been asked!

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"PS - Just went to a commercial auction at Colliers, the subject property sold for $7m, representing a 6.6% yield. Completely blew the price expectations out of the water, everyone thought it might sell for about 8%."

Were you the buyer Wastemaster?

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That rampant inflation driven asset growth; How is it going to be paid for? The last time we had that ( the seventies), net household debt servicing costs in the western world were around 30% of household income, and we were all 30 year old, with a lifetime of earning ahead of us. Today it's what? 90% + in many countries, including ours, and we are 65. Where is the capacity to fund asset price growth going to come from?

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This week we have seen wages increase and unemployement decrease - this is what happens in a recovery.

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I'd guess that you put whatever wage or rental increase you had into the petrol tank, SK! Or the shopping trolley at Wollies. I say again, inflation in all you need; deflation in all you own. And isn't it playing out that way? First the V8's go...then the house!

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Do you do some kind of mind tricks on yourself every morning before you boot your pc?

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So NZ currently has ~ emmigration stable to outflowing population; static to falling GDP and interest rates at historical lows that are tipped to rise ( not my view, but we'll see!). I'd suggest that those factors well and truely outweigh the latter parts of your post. The accummulated global debts of the last 30 odd years are going to defeat your scenario, Westminster, by which ever route the world goes. Either debt defaults, and massive austerity and de-leveraging, or inflation that will decimate those with nominal debts, that have to be serviced at lagging but ever rising interest rates, as incomes fail miserably to keep pace. That's why inflation is the worst alternative for you. It will steal your assets by stealth before you have a chance to see them to any time of maturity. 

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'Inflation' is friend to no one, Westminster, as you will find out ~ as did those of us who thought our properties 'didn't go down' in the 70's; We did have to pay mortgage interest rates that went from 10% to 22% within 6 months ( they didn't muck about with 0.25% moves in those days. They went 1% and 2% at a time!) to keep the nominal prices steady, though! Can you afford that kind of 'inflation' linked cashflow stress? Double your mortgage outgoings this very second, with no comensurate increase in income ( that will be eaten up by the rise in the price of food and petrol etc), and see how long it is before you have to stress-sell you properties. And it doesn't even matter if you can afford it. Because thousands won't be able to. They will have to sell, and the contagion that their sales put into the market...will affect your properties. Then, do the same cashflow sums...on lower, much lower, capital values and see how you go...

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One man's meat is another man's poison, Westminster? I am absolutley positive that I am about to reap the rewards of a liftimes efforts, by having my assets significanly revalue, and they are in nothing.... but cash. Where will the revaluation come from? As you might expect, purchasing power. Look at Japan ( I heard that groan!). Forget the property bit; but they have done it perfectly! Inflation through the 80's & 90's, and now that their retirees have left the workforce, they can spend ever increasing yen into a deflated asset marketplace. That's what is come to us and the rest of The West. And those of us with just cash, are going to be anyhting but miserable :)

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Thx, Westminster, and  you. After all, it's a difference of opinion that makes any market.

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Who was charging 22% in the 70's Nicholas? 80's, certainly. You best keep sticking to your nonsense generalisations and waffle. By quoting firm figures and dates you show either a very bad memory or total lack of knowledge. There has been only 1 period when NZ mortgage rates exceeded 20%, it was in the 80's and lasted less than 2 years, after which the fall was just as fast as the rise. 

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A bit of all, Vera. It was in Australia, and on reflection the 80's seems about right! My point was to the matter of 'inflation being a friend', so perhaps I shall be have to be a bit more precise with my comments :)

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Nicholas is correct, but it happened in 1992, when Paul Volcker, Fed Reserve Chairman,  increased interest rates dramatically. Interest rates here touched 22% for a brief period.

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The 1 year fixed rate in 1992,  ( the only fixed rate generally available then) peaked at 9.09% in January 1992. It then fell for the rest of the year. That's the facts Einstein. Spend a minute and check it on the RBNZ website; most 9 year olds should be able to show you how, (given a couple of days.)

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Hey Westminster, did you have this information when you mouthed of yesterday?

Mercedes HQ sold for $7m.

Direct Property Fund has sold the Mercedes-Benz NZ HQ in Mt Wellington for $7m.  The refurbished building went to a private investor at auction.  Mercedes has signed a 10 year lease, with 2 five year rights of renewal and pays $466,384 net rent per annum, rising 7% every second year.

Your "astute" investor paid a premium for guaranteed rent increases.  I doubt very much whether it had anything to do with any rampant asset value growth.  I wonder what the maximum price he was willing to pay and how it compared to those he outbid.

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How do you calculate the yield westminster?  Is it capital growth or rental yield (gross or net)?  Or are you just reprinting someone elses story?

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So this astute investor paid extra to receive a lower annual yield.  Sounds very astute.

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The astute investor would pay less to make more not more to make less, moron!

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meh

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dear Abbey....I'm guessing that's your idea of clever.....but anyone can spot a girlieswat.

give some thought to ..Ratmiester...it's catchy and less pompous.

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Hey Westie, maybe he just wanted to live in it? You don't know if he was going to rent it out or not.

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The data does not disagree with the mantra. Unemployment is still high-ish, and basically did not drop at all. Factor in ChCh and it will be worse 

Most of the data out in the last week still supports the reality of a weak economy: desperately low building consents, still high-ish unemployment, increasing emmigration, lower house sales and prices... 

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past perfrmance is not a guarantee of future performance.

regards

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Why do they keep taking Canterbury out of the various statistics.  Is it not still part of NZ?

Whatever is happening there more than has an effect on our country.  Employment hasn't really improved. 

Add the Canterbury stats and tell the truth.

What a waste of time survey!

They compare stats to the same period last year. Yet the Canterbury stats were included in last years survey.

 

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Employment rises 30,000...

Actually the increase in employment was only 6,900 (i.e. much less than the rate of workforce growth) before the data were massaged by their magical "seasonal adjustment" machine. That same adjustment gave us a miraculous 1.1% drop in unemployment for Q1 last year that was promptly reversed when the Q2 data came out.

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Fair point.

I'm all for readers' inputs on how we report the figures. We had a good debate a few years ago on whether we use seasonally adjusted vs unadjusted and concluded s.a for monthly movements and unadjusted for annual (the general consensus amoung economists). That was for building consents if I remember rightly.

With unemployment, which figures do readers consider most important?

Cheers

Alex

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I'm going to but in...If you have the data set you can do the re-analysis for the census include/exclude with duration re: The US site caculated risk did this for the US stats.

If response falls per preselected sample of population per pre-design then statistical significance is compromised.

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Seriously - would you prefer if everything was terrible, everyone was unemployed, people were fighting over milk and bread, NZX, property market and everything else was in freefall??

Is this a scenario which would give you satisfaction?

I'm off to the barfoots auction.

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Are you going to be bidding SK?

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I was interested at a place for around 7.8% - it went for 6.8%

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I think its funny how SK thinks of buying a property by the yield it creates, not if its a good home. I know a guy who lives in one of the richest neighbourhoods in the country, has lived there for 30 odd years at least, never gives a toss what the value of his home is, whether he could subdivide or not etc, he just lives there because he likes it and its his home. Thats how I roll. Long live the days when a home was a home, not an investment. Property Investing is a game for the middle class. Keep at it chumps.

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Yes, but it will be someone elses home, and SK should think of it as such, not about the $ (or lack thereof) that he makes.

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This was a collection of retail and office.

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Serioulsy SK - you are claiming the economy is in recovery mode?

Not surprising to see the Pollyannas on here grasp desperately at any stat to keep their little bubble inflated - 0.1%, what a joke even at face value.

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double post

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that's inflation:)

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Think too many are talking past one another as there are 2 economies at work not one. For a good proportion of people, they are wondering 'what recession'? Indeed with the numerous bargains available at present, they are doing better than ever. Then there are those who are in a disconnect with the modern economy and struggle, they are very aware of a down-turn   Like that in USA too, there are those doing very nicely thanks, and those who are doing it tough.   Pretty easy to see who is in what situation by reading their blogs

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And which bit of the two-ecomomied USA had the biggest effect on the whole? Did the well- off stop the entire economy falling in '07+, or did the strugglers drag it into the mire? The same will happen here....

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Good point.

Add to that depressions/recessions don't spread through the economy evenly. Some sectors suffer severely, some get by ok.

And it seems most people as long as they are doing ok, don't pay much attention to what' s going on down the road.

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Quite true actually. We're both double-booked at the moment, juggling projects has become an art form! Work isn't lacking in all areas that's for sure.

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Interesting...we have never had so much work, can't find the right skilled people to employ...our clients are either crazy busy working with the same staff with just replacements for those that burn out....or in a war of attrition where they are just keeping to key staff.

All in all everyone is holding their own or doing better...still don't see the increase in hiring anywhere.

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I'm not surprised about the no increase in hiring actually, assuming hiring means permanent PAYE positions.

We contract, ie customers don't hire us, just use us when needed. So although they pay us a lot more than they would an employee, they don't take the "risks" associated with hiring someone into a permanent job, especially if they are not convinced they'll get enough work for them in the long run. Good for us, but I guess it might mean there are less permanent jobs advertised??

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A story from the sharp end of employment: As pressure goes on the business, my employer has cut hours, and redone rosters. The new rosters meant there were 4 part time positions vacant. These positions are at the minimum wage, and with shitty hours. There were over 100 applicants........

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WHAT???? Unemployment has fallen?????? IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all know New Zealand is stuffed and has NO FUTURE!!!

House prices are on the cusp of the biggest fall in history, 300,000%! You won’t be able to give them away.

Unemployment is up over 5000%! Young people can’t find work. There are no jobs for ANYONE!!! Not even for Mrs Duncan at number 34!

And we are going to get flattened by a tsunami wave of rolling, corpulent diabetics, stuffing their gaping gobs with doughnuts and mince pies while being loaded onto the ambulance, bankrupting the health system. We won’t be able to get our knees done. In fact the hospitals will be so full of heaving sweating fatty porkers you even won’t be able to get in the front door, quite literally. Their lard butts will fill all the available spaces. And the smell!

There will be no National Superannuation. There won’t be anyone under 60 and all the money will have gone on the hated grasping baby bombers.

And we are going to owe 50 squillion dollars, each!

Run, run, run for your lives. Flee. Flee! Quick ring Air New Zealand, ring the ships, ring Aunt Dorothy. Book a plane to Oz. Get a boat, get whatever you can. But get out before it’s too late!

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FYI Here's Stephen Toplis' view from the BNZ on the "astounding" Q1 jobs growth.

"There was a trifecta of strength in this morning's March quarter Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS). Employment rebounded, unemployment fell and participation in the labour market surged. Granted, we don't want to get too carried way with these out-turns. Not with the ongoing volatility in the quarterly data, and because the impacts of the February earthquake are yet to be registered. However, today's HLFS certainly affirmed a robust starting point of reference, with positive underlying trends."

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FYI And here's HSBC's Paul Bloxham on the figures

Today's employment data provides further confirmation that the New Zealand economy was already in a solid upswing before the quake struck Canterbury in late February. Employment jumped by a strong 1.4% in Q1, to be back above previous peaks. The unemployment rate fell to 6.6% and would have fallen much more but for a sharp rise in the participation rate. With the quake's economic effects likely to be fairly isolated to Christchurch, and business surveys showing a post-quake improvement in confidence, we continue to expect the RBNZ to lift rates in Q4, though there could be a case for lifting them sooner."

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"The number of people employed rose by 30,000 in the three months to March, the largest quarterly increase since mid 2008, primarily due to a rise in people entering part-time work, seasonally adjusted figures from Statistics New Zealand show."

"The number of unemployed people dropped by 2,000 to 155,000, with New Zealand’s unemployment rate falling 0.1% to 6.6% in the March quarter, from a downwardly revised 6.7% in the December quarter (revised from 6.8%)."

 ""    """PPlease keep spinning SNZ!  Sure do a better job than REINZ crowd.

How many were employed for the Census (8000 or more) and into education?

What about the data collected after the earthquake? More like negative to me.

 

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all these economists are a bloody joke. I would suggest that there be a ban on these comments if they weren't so fun to laugh at

why does the media give so much time to the opinions of these wankers? As someone said on the radio the other day, you'd probably get projections right more often by rolling a dice than listening to one of these dicks

I'd place more faith in Ken Ring 

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Iconoclast - you're way wrong by 12 years- Volcker shot US rates higher to 18% plus in 1980! He was roundly chastised at the time, but then became a  noted a a hero later on for having the guts to do what is\was required. Despite what all the happy talk says beforehand, when reality sets in (inflation at above 14% and saver/invetors being killed), finally and always, someone steps up to fix the problem - those hurts the most, the niaive happy talkers. Lets admit the problems and wait for that person to step up for NZ. I am not yet prepared to say Key and English won't do it

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What can one make of unemployment/employment rates that do not inlcude Christchurch?  

If Christchurch is included would the unemployment rate be higher and the growth in employment lower?

Worrying is the increase in youth unemployed to 18.8% and the 1% increase in Maori unemployment rates.  

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What a joke, lets just leave CHC out of all the survey's as it makes our fiqures look bad, close our eyes and all pretend Canterbury is in another land, wonderland, and the rest of country will be fine and there are no issues.

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Then we get news like this, who to believe?

"Teenage unemployment has risen to a record 27.5 per cent, with a business group warning of a social time bomb.

"The unemployment rate for people between 15 and 19 has never been higher since records started in the mid 1980s.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4968864/Youth-jobless-a-time-bomb

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Shouldn't "teenage" people be studying or training for a future career rather than actually looking for a job in the first place (unless they aim for a whole life on the minimum wage that is)?

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We have added a new tab to track the NZ youth unemployment rate, here >>
http://www.interest.co.nz/charts/labour/unemployment
It sure looks a worrying trend ... although it drops sharply as you move into each older age band.

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Why on earth are there unemployment figures for 15 years old? Isn't school compulsory until 16 at least in NZ (and I assume this must be followed by some sort of training before becoming employable)? I didn't realise we encourage child labour here!

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"One hour per week....!" Interesting highlight David C.

 'Members of the working-age population who during their survey reference week were classified as 'employed' or 'unemployed'. Employed: All persons in the working-age population who during the reference week worked for one hour or more....'

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 For years I’m advocating: The real capital are our youngsters - but we have a situation of  thousand’s of youngsters lost – unemployed - a time bomb to explode.

How on earth are we providing the youngsters with decent jobs, when entire segments of our economy are missing and the government isn’t allocating and supporting NZcompanies with orders for our infrastructure needs in sectors like Energy/ Transport and Telecommunication ?

How on earth are we going to keep our well educated and talented youngsters here in New Zealand, our government importing most everything and how on earth can we ever lower our massive account deficit ?

How on earth can we ever rise wages for the wider population, provide decent job opportunities and make us wealthier our government not supporting a solid NZmanufacturing culture, but a consumer/ servicing culture ?

 We cannot afford to import most everything and export the NZeducated or leave them without decent job opportunities.

 The government (taxpayer) spend millions of NZ$ educating/ training youngsters and then youngsters do not have decent jobs – a time bomb to explode – watch the space.

-----

PM and ministers,

now in difficult tines it is even harder for private companies to keep employment. We do need urgently a structured, better planned and organised economy. The government obligated to play it’s active role described above. - not to interfere, but to support the private sector.

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 Gangs

…and I see a high number of young people walking the street doing nothing – recession ?

...and I see Ministers Joyce and Brownlee saying: All imported, because it is cheaper.

 ...and I see more idiots saying the same. ...and I see more young people walking the streets doing nothing.

 ...and I see young people getting together forming gangs - not working gangs constructing our most needed infrastructures in factories - but destructing.

 … and I see Joyce/ Brownlee saying in parliament we do need more police.

…and I see the public saying – Yes, we do need more police.

….and we do have more police. …and we do build more prisons.

…and we build more prisons not factories.

...and I see  Joyce/ Brownlee saying in parliament we do need more money.

..and the public says; Yes, Joyce and Brownlee are right we do need money.

… and the recession is here and we are stuffed as a nation – because there is no money !

 Without having the younger generation working in skilful jobs – there will be always recession

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 Bernard, Alex, Tony and ..

can you please stop editing my articles.

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Great - thanks Bernard,  Alex, Tony,   -  you do look far better in bold !

Have a nice weekend.

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Kunst: I am the one changing the format on some of your posts; it is not Bernard, Alex or Tony. Mainly it is for excessive use of 'bold' (which comes across as shouting), and excessive empty lines (which makes it hard for readers to read/scan the comments). It is never to change any text.

We apply an automatic style to all comments, but allow readers to use bold, italics and underline. Excessive use of these spoils the experience for all readers, and we retain the right to edit.

Only occasional use of bold or italics on one or two words is recommended. Excessive use just makes it look like shouting, is boorish. A good point in normal text will always be read and appreciated. Good points need no emphasis; they are their own highlight.

David Chaston, Publisher

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.....then make your proposals for a better New Zealand, so we can have an interesting debate at least - rather your senseless comment only.  What are your ideas of tackling an unbalanced economy, consumerism, indebtdeness, unemployment, especially youth unemployment, massive account deficit, NZ foreign dependency, unskilled workforce/ low wages, brain/ skill drain, etc. ?

I’m always straight to the point – proposing increase real, sustainable productivity - for our own requirements  - while many here talk about selling houses to each other, or other issues going  around a circle daily without real, profound results for our nation.

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