The unemployment rate rose to 6.8% in the December quarter from 6.4% in the three months to September, as the number of people in work fell and the number unemployed rose.
Publishing the data today, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said a seasonally adjusted 2.18 million people were employed in the latest quarter, down 0.5% from the previous quarter although 1.3% ahead of a year earlier when the unemployment rate had been 7%.
The household labour force survey also showed the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed at 158,000, up 5.1% on the quarter while being 2.5% lower than the year before.
SNZ labour market statistics manager Peter Gardiner said the results from the past 12 months indicated the labour market had struggled to gain momentum following the recent economic downturn.
Despite the fall in employment in the December quarter, a fall in part time work and rise in full time work resulted in a 0.2% rise in seasonally adjusted actual hours worked in the latest period from the September quarter. Annually, actual hours worked were up 2.9%.
Part time employment fell a seasonally adjusted 2.8% in the December quarter, while full time employment gained 0.3%.
The male unemployment rate rose 0.8 percentage points to 6.5%, while the female rate fell to 7% from 7.2%.
The labour force participation rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 67.9%, the lowest level since March 2008, while the number of people not in the labour force rose 1.6% in the latest quarter to 1.11m.
SNZ said the number of people aged 15 to 19 who were unemployed decreased significantly during the year to December, falling by an unadjusted 5900, or 13%, to 39,500.
For Maori, the unadjusted unemployment rate was marginally higher than a year earlier at 15.5%, while for those identified as European/Maori there was a drop to 10.3% from 13.6%, and for those in the category of Middle Eastern/Latin American/African there was a drop to 6.3% from 17.1%.
European unemployment was unchanged at 4.6%, for Pacific peoples it fell 0.5 percentage points to 13.5%, and for Asians it edged up to 9.3%.
