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Hopes unemployment had peaked have been dashed with latest rise

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 4 Feb 2026, 11:46am
Photo / Getty Images
Photo / Getty Images

Hopes unemployment had peaked have been dashed with latest rise

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 4 Feb 2026, 11:46am

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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