Manufacturing job losses belie pickup in activity

Fri, 17 Jul 2020

New Zealand manufacturers are still shedding staff despite activity cranking up as the country comes out of the covid-19 lockdown and the economy regains some sense of normality. The BNZ/BusinessNZ’s performance of manufacturing index rose to 56.3, its highest level since early 2018, and up from a level of just 39.7 in May and an all-time low 25.9 in April. A reading above 50 indicates expansion while a reading below 50 means activity is contracting. Still, the employment component of the index came in at 48.5, an improvement from 39...

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