New Zealand's unemployment rate has declined this year as businesses kept staff on deck amid an improving economic recovery.
The jobless rate was unchanged at 6.5 per cent in the three months ended June 30 after being revised down 0.1 percentage point in the March quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand's Household Labour Force Survey. That's lower than the 6.6 per cent forecast in a Reuters survey and is down 0.4 percentage points in the past year.
The number of people employed was steady at 2.21 million, and has grown 2 per cent over the past 12 months. Labour force participation fell 0.2 percentage points to 68.4 per cent, as expected, with more people becoming workers.
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