Unemployment: the forgotten economic foe

An additional 30,000 will be out of work by next September if monetary policy has its intended impact. (Image: Depositphotos)

Andy Fyers

Mon, 22 Aug 2022

Unemployment would surge past pre-covid levels to 5% by 2025 if the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) projections from August's Monetary Policy Statement come to pass.This isn't an entirely new projection (although the projected peak has increased since May), but with so much concern about price increases, it can easily be forgotten that inflation-fighting monetary policy generally means an increase in unemployment.Before the pandemic, NZ's unemployment rate had been steadily declining from a post-GFC (global financial crisis) high...

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