New Zealand employment confidence rose to a six-year high in the September quarter as sentiment in Canterbury bolstered the nation's outlook on jobs, according to the latest Westpac McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index survey.
The index rose to 111.5 in the September quarter from 109.9 in the June quarter, in a measure were a number above 100 indicates optimists outweigh pessimists. The index has risen for seven consecutive quarters and is now at its highest level since September 2008, when the global financial crisis began to weigh on sentiment. It remains below its peak of 135.9 in September 2007.
New Zealand's unemployment rate fell to a five-year low 5.6 percent in the June quarter as employment growth in Canterbury fuelled the labour market. Meanwhile, businesses intended to hire more staff according to ANZ Bank's latest business outlook survey for September, with a net 21.3 percent of businesses intending to employ more people, from August's 18 percent.
Business and consumer confidence measures have fallen in recent months on concerns the pace of economic growth is slowing, as falling dairy and log prices, the country's largest and third largest exports respectively, and the historic strength of the New Zealand dollar weighs on export receipts.
"The rise in employment confidence might seem to go against the recent run of play, with business and consumer confidence surveys falling over the September quarter," said Michael Gordon, Westpac senior economist. "However, we don't see these messages as contradictory. The labour market typically lags the broader economic cycle, and it is only in the last year or so that we've seen a marked lift in employment growth."
