New Zealand's unemployment rate moved up slightly in the three months ended June, prompting the National Party to move into full disaster-ahead mode.
In the quarter, unemployment moved to 4.5% from 4.4% in March. The slight rise followed five consecutive falls stretching back to December 2016.
The rate remained close to the nine-year low seen in March, Statistics NZ senior manager Jason Attewell said.
In the June quarter, the seasonally-adjusted underutilisation rate rose to 12%, up from 11.9%.
The underutilisation rate was equally as important as the unemployment rate. It provided a broader gauge of untapped capacity in New Zealand's labour market, he said.
National Party finance spokeswoman Amy Adams said the Government's anti-growth policies were hitting home.
The latest Statistics NZ figures indicated the number of people unemployed had increased by 4000 in the last three months.
''While unemployment remains low, it shouldn't be increasing at all when there are such large capacity constraints in the labour market and businesses have previously been crying out for new workers.''
Even more concerning was wages had not kept up with the cost of living increases, she said.
Wages were stagnating at time when the Government's policies were pushing up costs on New Zealand families through higher fuel taxes, higher rents and cancelling National's tax cuts, Ms Adams said.
Employment Minister Willie Jackson took a different view of the statistics.
It was heartening to see the economy continuing to add jobs at a good pace. Wage growth was picking up for hard-working Kiwis, he said in a statement.
The data showed 94,000 more people were in employment in the June 2018 quarter compared ith June 2017 - an annual growth rate of 3.7% compared to 3.1% (79,000) in the March quarter.
''Peoples' wages are rising. We have the highest rate of employment ever among Maori and women and New Zealand has one of the highest rates of employment in the world,'' he said.
ANZ senior economist Liz Kendall said the labour market remained tight.
The unemployment rate, at 4.5%, was close to estimates of full employment, consistent with firms experiencing difficulty in finding skilled labour.
The underutilisation rate at 12% remained historically high.
The high level might imply there was more spare capacity available in the labour market than the unemployment rate alone suggested as some employees were willing to work more, she said.
Alternatively, it could be a symptom of a mismatch between employers' needs and workers' skills or location.
''The labour market is expected to tighten further - but only modestly given weakness in forward indicators of labour demand such as employment intentions in our business confidence survey.''
The notoriously volatile regional employment data showed Otago had an unemployment rate of 3.4% in June from 4.7% in March and 5% in June last year
Southland had an unemployment rate of 3%, up from 2.9% in March but down from 4.6% in June last year.
