KEY POINTS:
The country's highest unemployment can be found in Northland and Wellington, official figures published today show.
The regional labour market reports, jointly produced by the Labour Department and the Ministry of Social Development, put the annual average unemployment rate for the country for the year to March at 3.7 per cent.
In Northland and Wellington the figure was 4.7 per cent, but with Northland's falling to get there, from 5.4 per cent in the year to March 2006, while Wellington's rose from 4 per cent.
Auckland's unemployment rate also rose, from 3.6 per cent to 3.9 per cent.
The three areas with rates under 3 per cent were all in the South Island.
The statistical area combining Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast had the lowest rate at 2.7 per cent, followed by Southland on 2.8 per cent and Canterbury on 2.9 per cent.
The biggest fall was measured in Waikato, where the figure dropped by 0.9 of a percentage point, from 4.2 per cent to 3.3 per cent in the latest year.
For the year to March, the annual average employment rate in Waikato was 67.2 per cent, up from 66.3 per cent in the year to March 2006.
The national figure for the latest year was 65.8 per cent, from 65.5 per cent the previous year.
Bay of Plenty also showed strong growth in the employment rate, from 63.3 per cent in the March 2006 year, to 64.4 per cent.
The Labour Department said employment growth was particularly strong in Waikato and Bay of Plenty, up 10.6 per cent in the former and 15.3 per cent in the latter.
The employment rate was highest in Southland at 69.5 per cent and lowest in Northland at 62.9 per cent.
The largest rise in the employment rate was in Taranaki, up 2.3 percentage points to 66.7 per cent.
The Labour Department said that in most regions more people were becoming available for work and moving straight into jobs.
The rapid move into jobs could be seen from the rising employment against a backdrop of stable low regional unemployment.
- NZPA
