NZ official unemployment rate overstates labour market woes, RBNZ says

Wed, 05 Dec 2012

New Zealand's unemployment rate of 7.3 percent overstates the weakness of the country's labour market, which has been tapering off through the latter half of this year, the Reserve Bank says. The bank's latest forecast is more downbeat about the level of unemployment over the next two years, but isn't convinced joblessness is at a 13-year high as shown in Statistics New Zealand's household labour force survey - the official barometer. The HLFS figures were in contrast to those in the Quarterly Employment Survey, falling numbers of unemploym...

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