New Zealand's Jobless Rate Climbs Ahead Of Election - Update
By James Glynn
SYDNEY--New Zealand's unemployment rate rose to its highest level since mid-2015 in the third quarter, defying expectations of a fall and affirming the central bank's recent caution around raising interest rates further.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.7% in the quarter, up from 5.6% in the second quarter, Stats NZ said Wednesday. Economists had expected a fall in the jobless rate to 5.5%.
The data comes ahead of what is expected to be a closely fought election on Saturday and just days after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept interest rates on hold despite money market traders seeing a hike as a sure bet.
The RBNZ's monetary policy committee voted 4 to 3 to hold the official cash rate steady at 2.75%. Still, RBNZ Governor Anna Breman indicated more interest rate increases were likely.
"We doubt that the prolonged weakness in New Zealand's labor market will prevent the RBNZ from hiking rates further at its December meeting, but it does mean that the bank will ultimately tighten policy by much less than the financial markets are anticipating," said Marcel Thieliant, Asia chief economist at Capital Economics.
The number of people in part-time employment increased by 15,000 in the third quarter, while the number of people in full-time employment decreased by 17,000, the data showed.
The underutilisation rate remained at 13.8% in the quarter and the employment rate fell to 66.4% from 66.7% in the second quarter.
Write to James Glynn at james.glynn@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 03, 2026 17:55 ET (22:55 GMT)
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