1. New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.0% in Q4 2023 (mkt: 4.3%) and the broader underutilisation rate rose to the highest level since Q2 2019 (excluding the COVID period)
2. Like in Australia, the youth unemployment rate in New Zealand has risen much more noticeably than the jobless rate for older kiwis, in part because of relatively stronger youth population growth
3. Both employment (+0.4% q/q) and hours worked (+0.8% q/q) rose in Q4 in New Zealand…
4. …but employment growth has not kept up recently with growth in the working age population
5. The softening in New Zealand’s key labour market indicators has been more pronounced than in many other economies, and on par with Canada
6. Labour cost growth in New Zealand has broadly flattened out at around 1% q/q. Around two-fifths of jobs received a pay rise of more than 5% over 2023
7. While private-sector labour cost growth has moderated a little, it remained strong in Q4 2023
8. The broader measure of private-sector average hourly earnings growth also slowed in Q4 but from rapid rates of growth
9. Average hourly earnings growth in New Zealand has been running MUCH faster than other measures of labour cost growth, possibly due to compositional effects
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