New Zealand: Employment Continues to Deteriorate

A release of New Zealand's unemployment information is an interesting experience in reconciling medium-term price action, the general market view and what we are saying in reality.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, we are seeing a 20% increase in unemployment QoQ (the 6th straight quarter of job losses). Curiously, in this case it has been a loss of female vs. male jobs at a clip of roughly 2:1.

While New Zealand is still not as bad as the US at 6% overall unemployment, the number is sobering when we look at the kiwi's ~35% appreciation against the dollar. To be sure, some of it is a result of the relative strength of the kiwi (especially after the steep decline from mid-2008) and a bounce off the unrealistically low 0.5 level but we have to wonder if the current price fully accounts for the fundamental view.

Comments

[PainfullyAware:]

Crazy Cetin.


On Aug 06 07:37 PM day fade wrote:

> hat tip to www.iamned.com

Aug 06 09:36 PM

[PainfullyAware:]

Things Are Tough All Over.

The Worst Is Yet To Come.

Aug 06 09:36 PM