Unemployment has pushed higher to its highest level in more than 11 years as growth in the labour force outstripped the number of jobs.

Stats NZ says unemployment was 5.6 percent in the three months ended June, from 5.4 percent in the previous quarter.

The number of unemployed rose by 7000 to 171,000, the highest since September 2015, as more people looked for work.

The level of underutilisation, a measure of slack in the market, increased to a 12 year high of nearly 14 percent.

The number of young people out of work or not in education and training increased as has the number of people out of work for more than a year.

Overall wages growth remained at 2 percent for the year, the lowest since 2021.

Economists had been expecting the rise, with too many people looking for jobs and a weak supply of jobs.

"The jobs market has held its ground through the Middle East conflict, but it hasn't gathered the momentum that we would have otherwise hoped to see," Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon said earlier this week.

More to come...