It is the first major change to the calculations since the household labour force survey was introduced in 1985, Statistics New Zealand on Wednesday released a report outlining revisions to labour market research, designed to better identify job seekers and to bring the official figures in line with international standards.
According to the new reports, the unemployment rate was revised to 5.2 per cent in the March 2016, from 5.7 per cent in the original report. The number considered unemployed dropped by 12,000 to 132,000. The first quarter participation rate was revised to 68.7 versus the previously number of 69.0.
“From a capacity perspective that offsets some of that lower unemployment rate,” said ANZ Economist Philip Borkin. The data is unlikely to have much impact on whether or not the central bank opts to cut interest rates further in August, he added.
Labour market data have been recalculated for every quarterly household labour force survey starting from 2005. The new figures show unemployment rate in December 2015 to have fallen to 5 per cent, compared to 5.4 per cent under the old calculation.
NZD/USD made a new session high at 0.7097 following the unexpected news, with some algo-led activity taking advantage of the headline.
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