Official unemployment rate falls to 6.4%

The number of people who are officially unemployed has fallen to 150,000 or 6.4 percent.

"I welcome this fall in the unemployment rate which is great for New Zealand," says the Hon Kate Wilkinson for Minister for Social Development and Employment.

"This Government has maintained a clear and unrelenting focus on employment in the midst of a recession that started under Labour," says Ms Wilkinson.

"Our task was first to put in place a wider-ranging economic programme to restore business confidence and pull New Zealand out of the recession," say Ms Wilkinson.

"The economy has now grown for five consecutive quarters and that is starting to result in more businesses hiring new staff," says Ms Wilkinson.

"However, there is clearly more work to do and the Government is committed to maintaining its relentless focus on jobs," says Ms Wilkinson.

The rate of unemployment, for 15-24 year olds, has fallen from 16.8 percent to 16.2 percent over the past year.

New Zealand's 6.4 percent unemployment rate compares to UK (7.8%), Australia (5.1%) and Ireland (13.9%).

The labour force participation rate is 68.3 percent in New Zealand compared to 65.6 percent in Australia.

"This is the first annual decrease in the number of unemployed young people since March 2008," says Ms Wilkinson.

"It's also good to see that, despite the increased rate of growth in the Australian economy, Kiwis are more engaged in work," says Ms Wilkinson.