New Zealand's potential workforce over the age of 15 years rose to 3.31 million people in December, up from 3.29 million in September, Statistics New Zealand reports.
The estimated working-age population - which comprises 1,614,600 men and 1,695,400 women - is used by economists in calculating key economic indicators, such as the level of unemployment.
Some economists are predicting that unemployment - already at its the highest rate since the end of 2003 - will take an ugly turn next Thursday when the Household Labour Force Survey for the quarter to December 2008 is released.
The Westpac bank, which predicts that the unemployment rate will rise to 6.4 percent by the end of the year, has said the proportion of jobless workers is likely to hit 4.6 percent in the December quarter figures, up from 4.2 percent in the September quarter.
This would jump the number of people out of work - about 94,000 in September on seasonally-adjusted figures, even with a record labour-force participation rate of 68.7 percent - way over the psychologically-significant 100,000 mark.
"We suspect it will show that New Zealand's employment downturn has entered a new phase,'' Westpac said in a report.
Unemployment rose only modestly during the first three quarters of 2008, and most who lost jobs found new ones, according to the bank.
But next week's figures are expected to show employment levels have entered a period of outright decline.
