{"id":4436,"date":"2026-02-09T00:37:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/kiwi-tumbled-as-new-zealand-joblessness-ticked-up-to-5-4-in-q4-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T00:37:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:37:52","slug":"kiwi-tumbled-as-new-zealand-joblessness-ticked-up-to-5-4-in-q4-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/kiwi-tumbled-as-new-zealand-joblessness-ticked-up-to-5-4-in-q4-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi Tumbled As New Zealand Joblessness Ticked Up to 5.4% in Q4 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>New Zealand\u2019s unemployment rate ticked higher to 5.4% in the December 2025 quarter instead of holding steady at 5.3%, reinforcing expectations for continued monetary easing from the RBNZ despite modest employment gains of 0.5% quarter-on-quarter.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li> <strong>Unemployment rate increased to 5.4% from 5.3%<\/strong> quarter-on-quarter, up 0.3 percentage points year-on-year<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Employment rate improved slightly to 66.7% from 66.6%<\/strong>, though remains down 0.5 percentage points annually<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Underutilisation rate held steady at 13.0%<\/strong>, unchanged from the previous quarter<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Labour force participation rose to 70.5% from 70.3%<\/strong>, partially offsetting weakness elsewhere<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Wage growth continued decelerating<\/strong>, with annual salary and wage rate increases slowing to 2.0% from 3.3% in December 2024<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Employed persons increased modestly<\/strong> to 2,886,000, up 14,000 from the previous quarter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Employment gains, while positive, were modest. The 0.5% quarterly increase in employed persons translated to just 14,000 additional jobs, bringing total employment to 2,886,000. However, this represents only a 0.2% annual increase, well below population growth and indicative of a jobs market struggling to generate robust job creation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Link to official Stats NZ Labour Market Statistics (December 2025 Quarter)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More concerning, the underutilisation rate (a broader measure encompassing unemployed, underemployed, and those in the potential labour force) remained elevated at 13.0%, with 409,000 people affected.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps most significant for monetary policy considerations was the continued deceleration in wage growth. The Labour Cost Index (LCI) for all salary and wage rates increased just 2.0% annually, down from 3.3% in December 2024 and the slowest pace in several years. This compares to annual consumer price inflation of 3.1% for the same period, suggesting real wages remain under pressure.<\/p>\n<h2>Market Reactions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>New Zealand Dollar vs. Major Currencies: 5-min<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The New Zealand dollar weakened broadly following the employment data release, as traders appeared to zoom in on the uptick in overall joblessness and slower wage growth.<\/p>\n<p>NZD tumbled sharply against AUD (-0.26%) as the dovish RBNZ outlook contrasted with the RBA\u2019s shift to rate-hiking mode earlier this week. The Kiwi also sustained losses against EUR (-0.18%) and GBP (-0.22%) ahead of the ECB and BOE decisions later on, but it managed to pull higher against CHF (+0.03%) and JPY (+0.21%) hours after the release, likely on broader market dynamics and counter currency flows.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Interested in <strong>fundamental analysis made for newbies<\/strong> and how to pair it up with technical analysis to find high-quality opportunities that may match your trading and risk management style? <strong>Check out our Premium membership for event trading guides, short-term strategies, weekly recaps and more!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>BabyPips.com Annual Premium Members also get an exclusive 30% discount on the annual subscription for the first year on Tradezella\u2013the top-rated journaling app! ($120 in savings)!<\/strong> <strong>Click here for more info<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand\u2019s unemployment rate ticked higher to 5.4% in the December 2025 quarter instead of holding steady at 5.3%, reinforcing expectations for continued monetary easing from the RBNZ despite modest employment gains of 0.5% quarter-on-quarter. Key Takeaways Unemployment rate increased to 5.4% from 5.3% quarter-on-quarter, up 0.3 percentage points year-on-year Employment rate improved slightly to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405.png",780,405,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405-300x156.png",300,156,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405-768x399.png",640,333,true],"large":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405.png",640,332,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405.png",780,405,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405.png",780,405,false],"morenews-featured":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405.png",780,405,false],"morenews-large":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405.png",780,405,false],"morenews-medium":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405-590x405.png",590,405,true],"crawlomatic_preview_image":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4436-nzd-jobs-report-2026-02-04-780x405-260x135.png",260,135,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"henry","author_link":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/author\/henry\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/category\/latest-news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Latest News<\/a>","tag_info":"Latest News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}