But number of employed people increasing by 36,000 to 2.9 million
Unemployed individuals in New Zealand went up 31,000 in the March 2024 quarter to drive the unemployment rate to 4.3%, according to Stats NZ.
The unemployment rate is up from the four per cent in the previous quarter. It is also 0.9 percentage points higher than the 3.4% in the March 2023 quarter.
The country's underutilisation rate also went up to 11.2% in March 2024, up from the 10.7% last quarter and from the 9.1% last year.
"Underutilisation not only includes people who are unemployed, but also part-timers who want and are available for more work, as well as people who want jobs but were either unavailable to start work or were not actively seeking," said labour market manager Deb Brunning in a statement.
Employment rate down
Meanwhile, New Zealand's employment rate declined to 68.4% in the March 2024 quarter as the country's working-age population increased, according to Stats NZ.
The decrease was 0.6 percentage points from the last quarter and 1.2 percentage points over the year, the data revealed.
"While the employment rate has declined from recent highs over the past year-and-a-half, it still remains high within the full Household Labour Force Survey timeseries, which began in 1986," Brunning said.
The decline in employment rate came despite the number of employed people increasing by 36,000 to 2.9 million.
According to Stats NZ, this is due to the country's working-age population also increasing by 129,000 to 4.3 million.
The number of employed youth (15 to 24 years old) went down by 24,900 to 381,800, while employment for older workers (30 to 44 years old) went up by 50,800.
