Unemployment has hit a six-year high, according to official figures out today.
Statistics New Zealand’s household labour force survey for the March quarter shows that the number of jobless rose by 7000 to 115,000 during the period, with the unemployment rate increasing to 5 percent from 4.7 percent.
However, the unemployment rate is much lower than economists were forecasting. Most had tipped a rate of 5.3 percent or even higher.
This has prompted rumors that the Reserve Bank may not reduce interest rates at the next meeting which I think is completely off the planet.
The recession is biting a lot harder than what those at the top believe, sitting down with clients on a regular basis gives you a pretty good indication of how things are going across a broad cross section.
Companies have been letting staff go as they struggle to contain costs in the face of falling profitability. Our economy has been in recession since the start of last year and has more recently been knocked hard by the global economic turmoil.
NZ still has a lot of pain coming and to ease off on the reduction in interest rates will only extend the time this recession will continue.
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