Liam Dann: NZ Herald Business Editor on unemployment rising to 5.4%

Best of Business · Feb 3, 2026 · 11m · transcript

Unemployment's risen again to a ten-year high, with 165 thousand Kiwis currently out of work.

Stats NZ data shows the unemployment rate was 5.4% in the December quarter, up from 5.3% in the September quarter.

It's now the highest it's been since September 2015.

The Herald's Liam Dann told Kerre Woodham while today's rise is small, it's also unexpected.

He says there was some hope we had seen the peak of unemployment, but it appears we haven’t.

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