New Zealand’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose year-on-year by 0.4% to 4.7% in the quarter ended March 2021, according to data from Statistics New Zealand.

When compared to the previous quarter ended December 2020, the unemployment rate fell by 0.2%.

Statistics New Zealand noted that both the unemployment rates for men and women stood at 4.7%. The male rate rose from 4.5% last quarter and the female rate fell from 5.3%. Year-on-year, the unemployment rate for men rose by 0.6% and for women by 0.3%.

“There have been some gains in labour market outcomes, especially for women, over the past two quarters. However, annual changes indicate the labour market still hasn’t returned to pre-Covid-19 levels for men or women,” Work, wealth, and wellbeing statistics senior manager Sean Broughton said.

The seasonally adjusted number of people in unemployment fell by 5,000 over the quarter, with the number of unemployed women falling by 8,000, offset by an increase of 3,000 men. Over the year, 13,000 more people were unemployed – 9,000 more men and 4,000 more women.

March 2020 was the last quarter before we saw major impacts of Covid-19 on the labour market,” Broughton said. “Looking at our annual changes, from March 2020 to March 2021, let us see what the labour market was like before and after the impacts of Covid-19.”

The seasonally adjusted employment rate rose to 67.1%, up from 66.8% in the previous quarter, but remained down from 67.7% in the March 2020 quarter.

The fall in the annual change in employment rate reflected the number of people who were employed (up 9,000) increasing by a smaller amount than the working age population (up 49,000) over the year.