The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in New Zealand was 5.4 per cent in the December 2025 quarter, compared with 5.3 percent in the previous quarter.
This according to figures released by Stats NZ, and contrast a different economic view compared to Australia where the unemployment rate slipped to 4.1 per cent in December 2025, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
New Zealand’s rising unemployment rate also joins a 13 per cent underutilisation rate, with the employment rate at 66.7 per cent.
New Zealand’s annual wage inflation was 2 per cent, with the average ordinary time hourly earnings being $43.99.
Macroeconomic spokesperson Jason Attewell said the unemployment rate is the highest since the September 2015 quarter, when it was 5.7 per cent.
“Over the quarter, we saw higher levels of engagement in the labour market as both employment and unemployment increased,” Attewell said.
There were 165,000 unemployed people in the December 2025 quarter, as measured by the Household Labour Force Survey. This was a quarterly increase of 5,000 people (2.9 per cent).
The seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate was 70.5 per cent in the December 2025 quarter, compared with 70.3 per cent in the previous quarter. Australia’s participating rate sits at 66.7 per cent, according to the ABS.
Labour force participation indicates the proportion of working-age people who are engaged in the labour market through either employment or unemployment.
The labour force increased by 19,000 over the quarter, as the working-age population rose by 14,000 and the number of people not in the labour force declined by 6,000.
Compared with the September 2025 quarter, 20,000 more women were in the labour force – 16,000 more employed and 4,000 more unemployed.
While the number of men employed remained relatively steady, the growth in female employment drove a 15,000 increase in the total number of people employed in the December 2025 quarter. Nationally, this was the first quarterly increase in employment since the June 2024 quarter.
Annually, the increase in the number of women employed was not statistically significant, but there were some changes to the occupations in which women were employed (not seasonally adjusted).
The number of women employed as managers increased by 25,000 (9.7 per cent) in the year to the December 2025 quarter, and the number employed as professionals increased by 20,500 (5.0 per cent). Simultaneously, the number of female clerical and administrative workers declined by 19,600 (9.3 per cent).
For men, there were no statistically significant changes in employment by occupation in the year to the December 2025 quarter.