The unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent in the September 2016 quarter (from a revised 5.0 percent in the previous quarter), Statistics New Zealand said today. This is the lowest unemployment rate since the December 2008 quarter. There were 3,000 fewer people unemployed than in the June 2016 quarter and 10,000 fewer over the year.

"The number of people employed in New Zealand was up 35,000, or 1.4 percent, in the September 2016 quarter," labour and income statistics manager Mark Gordon said. "This strong growth in employment, coupled with fewer unemployed people, pushed the unemployment rate below 5.0 percent for the first time in nearly eight years."

The working-age population increased by 24,000 people (0.7 percent) over the quarter, to reach 3,739,000.

"The increase in the number of people employed again exceeded population growth over the latest quarter. This resulted in the employment rate increasing 0.5 percentage points, so currently 66.7 percent of the working-age population is in some form of employment," Mr Gordon said.