Unemployment rises

The latest employment data from Stats NZ isn’t good news for the Government. However I wouldn’t place too much reliance on just one quarter. Key data is:

• Unemployment up 10,000
• Employment up 2,000
• Unemployment rate up from 4.0% to 4.3%
• 15 – 19 year old unemployment rate up from 15.2% to 21.2%
• 20 – 24 year old unemployment rate up from 6.3% to 8.3%
• 15 – 19 year old NEET rate up from 7.6% to 11.4%
• OECD rank for unemployment drops from 9th= to 14th=

Also embarrassing for the Government is the gender pay gap has increased, which shows rhetoric is cheap.

The ratio of average female to male pay in December 2017 was 88.2% and in December 2018 was 87.8%