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New Zealand Jobless Rate Rises to 11-Year High Amid Fuel Shock

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New Zealand Jobless Rate Rises to 11-Year High Amid Fuel Shock

New Zealand's jobless rate rose to an 11-year high in the June quarter, beating estimates and rising to its highest since 2015.

The unemployment rate in the country rose 5.6% in the June quarter, up 0.2 percentage points from the March quarter and up 0.4 percentage points from the June quarter of 2025.

The seasonally adjusted underutilisation rate, a broader measure of untapped labor market capacity than unemployment, rose to 13.8%, up from 12.9% in the March quarter.

The seasonally adjusted employment rate was 66.7% in the June quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter.

Westpac, which expected a 5.4% rise in the June quarter unemployment rate, said the details are mixed from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's perspective, even if the employment measures were mixed.

On average, they support Westpac's expectation of soft growth in activity over the quarter.

The unemployment rate has also beaten ANZ's estimate of a 5.5% rise, as the hiring pause due to the oil shock affected more jobs than forecasters expected.

This comes after Stats NZ's data released last week said that the cost of living for the average New Zealand household rose 3.2% in the 12 months to the June quarter, while the seasonally adjusted number of filled jobs rose 0.1% month on month to 2.4 million in June, following a 0.2% increase in May.

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