Hundreds of thousands of people don't have as much paid work as they need - with labour market data showing while the unemployment rate remained stable in the recent quarter, fewer hours are being worked, and wage growth is slowing.
Outside of the 2020 and 2021 Covid period, the number of hours worked recorded the deepest annual decline since 2009. The March quarterly data from Stats NZ shows 156,000 people are unemployed - but 234,000 more are under-utilised meaning they have a job but not enough hours or are able to work but may have given up looking.
It all sits underneath the comparatively rosy headline figure of unemployment - which was unchanged during the period - to stay at 5.1 percent. Mary Jo Vergara is senior economist at Kiwibank.
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