Business News
New Zealand unemployment rate rises to 7.3 per cent
Feb 3, 2010, 22:42 GMT
Wellington - New Zealand's unemployment rate jumped sharply to 7.3 per cent in the last three months of 2009 as school-leavers and students joined the workforce but were unable to find jobs, according to official figures released on Thursday.
Unemployment is now at its highest level in more than 10 years, Statistics New Zealand said.
The size of the rise from 6.5 per cent in the September quarter surprised analysts after the Reserve Bank had predicted it would be only 6.6 per cent.
The number of unemployed at the end of last year was 168,000, Statistics New Zealand said, noting a sharp rise in the jobless aged between 15 and 24 where the unemployment rate is now 18.4 per cent.
Only 4.6 per cent of New Zealand's white European majority workers are unemployed with ethnic minorities worst affected.
Just over 17 per cent of workers of Middle East, African or Latin American origin are jobless, with 15.4 per cent of the indigenous Maori population and 14 per cent of Pacific islanders.
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