This figure is far stronger than the market expected (5.3%) – and well stronger than I was thinking (I was personally seeing scope for 5.5% given how quickly the UR rose in 1990/91).
I know unemployment is a lagging variable – but just reaching the “neutral rate” after 15 months of recession is a strong sign for the NZ economy. I don’t know how we can even get to 7% unemployment in a situation like this (unless the recession is still going strong in 2011 
)
This is a very strong result – make no mistake.
Also careful trying to say that employment or the participation rate were rubbish – they are still both up on a year ago
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Twitted by TVHE says:
May 7, 2009 at 11:19 am (UTC 12 )
[...] This post was Twitted by TVHE – Real-url.org [...]
TVHE » Australian unemployment also surprises … says:
May 7, 2009 at 3:04 pm (UTC 12 )
[...] unemployment in Australia fell from 5.7% in March to 5.4% in April. Following our better than expected March quarter this is all very [...]