Little comfort in 'robust' labour market figures

Wed, 06 May 2020

Local jobs numbers looked good in the March quarter but are of little comfort, given the rising number of layoffs and unemployment benefit claims since strict lockdown measures were imposed to contain the spread of covid-19. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent in the March quarter versus 4 percent in the December quarter, which was the lowest level since the global financial crisis, Stats NZ said.The March quarter includes only one week of the alert level 4 lockdown when much of the economy ground to a complete standstill. Stats...

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