January unemployment figures

Minister of Employment Peter McCardle said today there was a small increase of .2 percent in the number of registered unemployed during January.

The number of registered unemployed has increased by 429 from 187,153 in December 1997 to 187,582 in January 1998. Mr McCardle said the increase was due to the continuing impact of the new work testing requirements which added 854 newly work tested beneficiaries in January and weak employment growth.

The NZES register is an administrative record of unemployed clients assisted by the Employment Service and is not the official measure of unemployment. The official measure of unemployment is the quarterly Household Labour Force Survey.