New Zealand labour costs rose in the final three months of 2012 as the gathering pace of Canterbury's reconstruction effort saw the building and construction sector underpin gains.

Marking 50 years of work at the Hillside foundry, Roger Parsons yesterday poured the last KiwiRail cast on site before heading to his local for a beer.

It's back to school for students but many teachers are unemployed because of an oversupply.

An East Coast man on the dole for 25 years is the longest unemployment beneficiary in the country and has been paid more than $260,000 in taxpayer money.

The latest tax figures offer some hope that the labour market is not quite as grim as official statistics portray.

Australian workers are being sought for a large Auckland building project beginning soon, outraging NZ First leader Winston Peters, who says Kiwis have been snubbed.

The number of sole parents on the domestic purposes benefit dropped by 5000 last year - a drop Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is attributing partly to her new policy requiring sole parents to get jobs when their youngest child turns five.

The increasing Asian ownership of restaurants and cafes in Auckland is giving Asians an advantage over English-speaking European job seekers, a Massey University sociologist says.

The decline in mortgagee sales of residential properties has been interpreted by a bank economist as a welcome sign of an improvement in the economy.

Fuelled by the highest rate of unemployment in 13 years, the queues snaking along the pavements outside the Auckland City Mission have nothing festive about them.

Paul Little: Send jobless to Oz? A poor solution

The NZIER shadow board believes Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler should leave the official cash rate on hold at 2.5 per cent on Thursday.

More people lose their jobs in the lead-up to Christmas than in other times of the year, as employers take stock and plan for the year ahead.

Redundant worker Kimberley Inu has won more than a month's backpay after Work and Income's call centre mistakenly told her she could not get the dole.

New Zealand's services sector grew at its fastest recorded pace last month as sales activity rallied, ending a recent horror run of data.