Unemployment rate hits 5.3%

Unemployment is up but in line with expectations (Image: Getty)

Wed, 05 Nov 2025

Watch HeraldNOW: Labour costs no barrier to a November OCR cut, sick leave costs at $4.17B, and ACC builds a $180m small and micro-cap NZX portfolio. The unemployment rate hit 5.3% in the September 2025 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.That is the highest rate since December 2016 (up from 5.2%).There were 160,000 unemployed people in the September 2025 quarter, as measured by the Household Labour Force Survey.The increase is in line with what economists had expected.The majority of economists had forecast the topline une...

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