Advocates are upset an Australian company is the big winner in Winz experiment that will pay contractors up to $12k to help beneficiaries into paid work.

The world's richest 85 people own as much as the poorest 3.5 billion, according to Oxfam - and it's issued a warning that gap could trigger mass social unrest.

Finance Minister Bill English says he wants Google, Apple and Starbucks and other multinationals to pay more tax and hopes the issue will be raised at economic talks this week.

A restaurant worker has been awarded more than $30,000 in unpaid wages after she was underpaid for the hours she worked, and not paid at all for 11 weeks.

This could be the year you get the pay rise you've been waiting for, writes Bernard Hickey.

There are "deeply ingrained systemic issues'' in the forestry industry, New Zealand's work safety regulator says, following the death of another forestry worker this morning.

Retail spending is up, but potentially higher interest rates and a slowing in the growth of house prices could present challenges this year, says an economist.

NZ business confidence has soared to a 20-year high, lifting hopes for profits, hiring and new investment.

A young Kiwi is to get a taste of what it's like to work for one of the coolest companies on the planet.

Economic commentators are saying 2014 is going to be a "good year". Peter Davis suggests 10 economic steps to prosperity.

The economic omens for New Zealand this year are good.

The new year is the opportunity for assessing the past 12 months and making a fresh start - it's good to use January as a time to re-evaluate your career, your habits, everything.

French food giant Danone's legal action against Fonterra will cause uncertainty for investors and is more bad press for the dairy co-operative and NZ, says a commentator.

The size of Australia's iron ore export earnings continues to soar despite concerns about an end of the mining boom, a new report says.

The New Zealand dollar is expected to remain at elevated levels throughout this year.

Discussion of the economy normally disappears in the summer holiday languor, for good reason.

The Australian economy could strengthen in the new year helped by a weaker currency and the policies of central bankers in Washington.

Solid Energy's random drug and alcohol tests nabbed 28 offenders in the year to July, more than a third less than the previous year.

The economy is heading into 2014 with a lot of momentum.

The sharemarket has seen a raft of new companies launch on to the exchange in the past 14 months but not all have proved to be winners.

Let's use present momentum to develop sectors that have the potential to transform New Zealand's economy.

After nearly six grinding years of stop-start recession and timid growth the economy seems set to finally take off.

Economic activity grew 1.4 per cent in the Sept quarter to be 3.5 per cent larger than a year earlier.

A man aged in his 20s was killed by a falling tree while working on a forestry block in rural Horowhenua this morning.