Unemployment figures: New Zealand compared to the US, Australia and China

Unemployment rose to 5.3 percent in the September quarter.

In the September quarter of 2020, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed increased by 37,000 to reach 151,000 as the impact of Covid-19 hit the labor market, Statistics NZ said today.

This 37,000 increase is the largest quarterly increase in unemployment since the series began in 1986.

However, economists expected a figure between 5 and 6 percent, but observed a wide range of variability based on complications from the pandemic.

This figure is at the lower end of expectations.

By comparison, Australia’s unemployment rate currently stands at 6.9 per cent. New Zealand’s unemployment figures also compare favorably with those of the United States, Canada, and the OECD average.

There were 22,000 fewer people employed this quarter than in the June 2020 quarter, Stats NZ said.

During the September 2020 quarter, unemployment rates for men and women increased by similar amounts, with the rate for women reaching 5.8% and that for men reaching 4.8%.

The underutilization rate rose to 13.2%. And hours worked nearly rebounded from record drops during the shutdown.

“Labor market conditions have deteriorated and are expected to continue to do so, but government support and our relative success from Covid have been effective in limiting the damage thus far,” said ASB Senior Economist Mike Jones.

“We view this quarter’s unemployment rate as a more or less ‘fair’ reading of the slack in the New Zealand labor market.”

While today’s data provides a cleaner reading than Q2, which included the first crash, it may still have been affected by pandemic anomalies.

Unemployment actually fell to 4 percent in the second quarter (June).

“Only those who are actively looking for work are classified as unemployed, but the conditions of the lockdown make this impractical,” said Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon.

But after Stats NZ included some additional questions in June about whether people weren’t looking for work for Covid-related reasons, the “true” unemployment rate appears to have been more than 4.6 percent in the second quarter, he said.

“This quarter, Auckland spent seven weeks in Covid-19 alert levels higher than the rest of New Zealand, with the number of people employed particularly affected, compared to the rest of the country,” said Stats NZ labor market and statistics from Senior Homes manager Sean Broughton.

In Auckland, the unadjusted number of people employed decreased by 18,000 during the September 2020 quarter, to 893,200.

The number of people employed in Auckland’s retail, accommodation and food service industries fell from 8,700 to 125,700, a drop of 6.5 percent.

The number of employed women fell from 14,000 to 1,266,000, while the number of employed men fell from 8,000 to 1,444,000.

The employment rate for women was 61.2% and that for men 71.8%.

“Most of the jobs lost were women,” said KiwiBank chief economist Jarrod Kerr.

“Women are the hardest hit as there are more women in the worst affected tourism industries. And what is more concerning is the increasing number of women leaving the workforce. The number of Maori women employed in the tourism sectors is decreased by 20 percent in the quarter. “

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the data showed the government’s decision to focus the Covid-19 recovery and reconstruction plan on jobs was working.

“This continues to be a difficult time for many New Zealanders and we are working hard alongside them to create new job and training opportunities,” he said.

“We recognize that today’s employment statistics show that the economic impact of Covid-19 is falling disproportionately on women, Maori, and Pacific peoples. I will work closely with ministers in these areas to ensure there is a recovery. and inclusive reconstruction “.