New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose to 5.7 per cent in the September quarter, its highest level in 11 years, as the country approaches a general election.
The seasonally adjusted rate was up from 5.6 per cent in the June quarter. An estimated 174,000 people were unemployed on the same seasonally adjusted basis, compared with 171,000 three months earlier. The rate was last as high in the September quarter of 2015.
The figures come from a household labour force survey. The unemployment rate measures the share of the labour force that is unemployed, rather than the share of the whole population. It includes working-age people without a paid job who are available for work, and who either looked for work in the past four weeks or have a new job due to start within the next four weeks.
Employment and participation
The seasonally adjusted number of people in employment was estimated at 2.891 million in the September quarter, compared with 2.896 million in June. The employment rate, which measures the proportion of the working-age population in work, fell from 66.7 per cent to 66.4 per cent.
The share of working-age people in the labour force also declined, from 70.6 per cent to 70.4 per cent. That measure includes both people in employment and those counted as unemployed, giving a different view from either the unemployment or employment rate alone.
A broader measure of unused labour capacity, known as underutilisation, was unchanged at 13.8 per cent. It covers unemployed people as well as some people who are working part time but want and are available for more hours, and people in the potential labour force. An estimated 438,000 people were underutilised on the seasonally adjusted measure.
Duration is another part of the picture. On a separate, non-seasonally adjusted measure, 21.5 per cent of the 169,100 people counted as unemployed had been unemployed for more than a year. That percentage should not be applied to the seasonally adjusted unemployment total.
Among 15 to 24-year-olds, the seasonally adjusted proportion not in employment, education or training rose from 13.8 per cent to 14.1 per cent. This measure is broader than youth unemployment: it also includes people who are not actively seeking work.
Changes in work and pay
While overall employment changed only slightly, there was a shift in the balance between full-time and part-time work. The seasonally adjusted number in part-time employment rose by 15,000 over the quarter, while the number working full time fell by 17,000.
Over the year, more paid employees were in casual or fixed-term roles. The number of casual employees increased by 19,100 to 116,900, while those on fixed-term contracts rose by 8,100 to 50,900. These figures are not seasonally adjusted and cover paid employees, rather than everyone in employment.
Actual weekly hours worked fell by 1.6 per cent over the quarter to 94.7 million, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The timing of holidays is relevant to comparisons: the Matariki public holiday fell in the September quarter in 2026, whereas it fell in the June quarter in the previous two years.
Annual wage inflation, measured by an index of salary and wage rates including overtime, was 2.1 per cent in the year to September. A separate measure found average ordinary-time hourly earnings rose by 2.9 per cent to NZ$44.86.
Consumer prices increased by 3.7 per cent over the same year. The wage and price measures describe different things, and neither shows exactly how the take-home pay or costs of any individual household changed.
Different ways to count work
The seasonally adjusted number of filled jobs, measured separately using monthly payroll information, rose by 0.3 per cent in September compared with August. This monthly job count differs from the quarterly household survey’s estimates of people’s labour-force status; one person can hold more than one job. The two series measure different things over different periods.
The labour-market figures were released after advance voting began on 26 October. Election day is Saturday 7 November, with voting places due to close at 7pm local time. The figures describe conditions in the months before the vote; they do not establish how people will vote or what the election result will be.
The next quarterly labour-market release, covering the final three months of 2026, is scheduled for 3 February 2027. Until then, the September figures provide a snapshot of unemployment, participation, working hours and pay rather than a forecast of what will happen next.
