New Zealand: Unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in Q4 vs 4.1% expected

The data published by the Statistics New Zealand revealed that the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2018 rose to 4.3% from 4% (revised from 3.9%) recorded in the previous quarter and fell short of the market expectation of 4.1%.

Key takeaways from the press release

• The labour cost index (LCI) increased 1.9 percent in the year to the December 2018 quarter, while the analytical unadjusted LCI increased 3.3 percent.
• Private sector wages were up 2.0 percent, while public sector wages increased 1.7 percent.
• HLFS (household labour force survey) results for the December 2018 quarter showed the labour force participation rate was 70.9%, down 0.1 percentage point (pp). 
• The employment rate was 67.8%, down 0.4 pp.