KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's unemployment rate fell to 3.7 per cent in the December quarter from 3.8 per cent in the September quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today.
The rate is just 0.1 of a percentage point above the lowest rate since SNZ began doing the series in 1986.
The number of people employed fell slightly -- by 2000 to 2,115,000 -- while the job participation rate fell to 67.9 per cent from 68.2.
Although the unemployment rate was slightly better than economists' forecasts of 3.8 per cent, quarterly employment fell 0.1 per cent, well below economists' forests of 0.3 per cent growth and that will give some comfort to Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard when he reviews interest rates next month.
Earlier this week the bank's preferred measure of wage inflation, the Labour Cost Index showed a quarterly rise in the private sector of 0.9 per cent, bringing the annual rate to a high 3 per cent and causing economists to predict he will hike rates.
The fall in employment was mainly due to a decrease in female full-time employment. Male employment and female part-time employment rose. However, employment growth over the year remained strong at 1.4 per cent, or 29,000.
The 1000 drop in the number of unemployed was entirely due to a fall in female unemployment.
The number of people not in the labour forces grew strongly in the quarter -- up by 13,000 -- with females contributing 95 per cent of this. That fall, coupled with the increase in a 13,500 in the working-age population, caused the fall in the participation rate.
The Maori unemployment rate fell to 7.2 per cent from 7.6 per cent in the September quarter while the rate for Pacific peoples rose to 6.8 per cent from 5.1 per cent. That compared with the pakeha rate of 2.6 per cent, down from 2.7 per cent.
There was a big drop in the Northland unemployment rate -- to 3.3 per cent from 5.2 per cent. Gisborne/Hawkes Bay now has the highest unemployment rate of 4.7 per cent, up from 4.6.
The lowest rate of 2.6 per cent was in Waikato and Taranaki. Auckland's rate was steady on 3.8 per cent.
The rate for 15-19 year-olds rose to 14.3 per cent from 13.0 per cent while the rate for 20-24 year-olds fell to 6.0 per cent from 6.8 per cent.
New Zealand's unemployment rate is the fourth lowest in the developed world behind Norway, South Korea and Denmark.
- NZPA
