The Department of Labour has published their labour market update for November. From their studies, males and young people are the most affected by growing unemployment. The Department also warns that unemployment is going to continue to rise to a peak of 7%.

Public sector redundancies increase

Radio New Zealand reports that 301 employees have been made redundant in the public sector between July 08-June 09 - over 80% more than the year before. The public sector base salary, however, has gone up in the same time by 53%. Public servants are also taking more sick leave.

What we're seeing in the market

For the past few months we've been watching the number of available jobs listed on the government jobs website. While it's not a completely accurate measure of what's happening in the public sector, it does give us some idea of what positions are available. Despite all the doom and gloom in the news, we have seen that the number of policy jobs advertised has stayed more-or-lessly constant.