Jobs & Money Detail
Optimistic outlook on jobs
Levels of optimism are rising on the work front in New Zealand, combating talk that the economy is dipping
New Zealanders are more confident about their job opportunities over the next 12 months, according to a report released by Westpac Banking Corporation and McDermott Miller Limited. One of the many positive signs that the economy should pick up next year. A net 12 per cent of the country's workers expect jobs will be harder to find in the next 12 months compared with 20 per cent in the first quarter says the report. "Workers expect an eventual recovery in the economy will restore their wage growth and improve job availability," said Brendan O'Donovan, chief economist at Westpac in Wellington. "Rural workers' confidence improved the most, reflecting their proximity to key export industries."
A net 44 per cent of workers expect to be earning more in a year, compared with 39 per cent in the first quarter. A net 12 per cent expect their jobs will be more secure, down from 15 per cent in the previous three months.
Equally positive is the New Zealand government's announcement that fewer than 40,000 New Zealanders are signing on to the dole and claiming unemployment benefits – the lowest level in 24 years. On 30th June, some 39,572 people were registered as unemployed and receiving
unemployment welfare payments, according to quarterly data.
New Zealand's first-quarter jobless rate of 3.7 per cent is the second-lowest of 27 economies in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Business confidence is also on the rise according to a survey of over 800 business respondents undertaken electronically by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.
The key findings from the survey, which asked businesses to look ahead at conditions for the next six months, show that business confidence has improved for the third quarter in a row, despite renewed uncertainty that interest rates will start coming down in the period ahead. The New Zealand economy will expand at its slowest pace in eight years in 2006 before rising exports fuel a rebound next year, according to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. The prospect of economic recovery, combined with rising wages and a low jobless rate, are adding to the belief that the central bank won't cut interest rates from a record 7.25 per cent this year.
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