NZ's tight labour market about skills, not capacity, economists say

Wed, 07 Feb 2018

By Rebecca Howard Feb. 7 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand's high underemployment rate indicates spare capacity in the labour market, and complaints by firms struggling to find labour are largely due to the mix of skills rather than sheer numbers, economists say. Government figures today showed the unemployment rate dropped to 4.5 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31 from 4.6 percent in September. However, underemployment rose 6.3 percent on quarter to a record 122,000 people and pushed up the underutilisation rate, which measures t...

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