Cautious confidence at heart of rise in unemployment

Cautious confidence at heart of rise in unemployment

The latest Statistics New Zealand Household Labour Survey results may reflect the continued market fragility and cautious business confidence emanating from the latter part of 2010.

While unemployment has risen in the final quarter of 2010, the New Year is expected to bring a strengthening in the labour market says specialist recruitment & HR services company, Randstad.

Randstad New Zealand’s General Manager, Paul Robinson says it was a shock for many to see the unemployment rate rise, but these results from the last quarter of 2010 could simply be an indicator of what is generally a slow time of year.

“With people away on holiday and postponing new projects, hiring and job searching until the New Year, these figures are not something to be concerned about.”

Robinson says there is a lot of positivity around growth for the year ahead, particularly the way in which companies are talking about business and hiring intentions.

“On top of this, we of course have the Rugby World Cup later in the year. There will be a lot of activity and solid flow-on effects for business and jobseekers, so we are expecting 2011 to be a steady year of growth,” continues Robinson. “We expect to see more positive movement in the next quarter results, as this tends to be a time of year when workers who have been considering moving on, do so.”

Statistics New Zealand Household Labour Survey for the December 2010 quarter found the number of people unemployed rose by 8,000 to 6.8 per cent. Compared to December 2009 however, the rate of unemployment has decreased by 0.2 per cent.

ENDS

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