Job advertisements fell last month and are pointing to an unemployment rate around 7 per cent, ANZ says.
Employment advertisements in newspapers and the internet combined fell a seasonally adjusted 0.8 per cent, on top of a 0.9 per cent decline in October.
ANZ economist Sharon Zollner said the bank's composite job ads indicator, which weights newspaper ads more heavily to give a better indicator of the unemployment rate, fell 2.4 per cent to a two-year low, reversing a 1.6 per cent rise in October.
"On a regional basis, Auckland's composite measure dropped to a three-year low, Wellington hit a new all-time low, and Canterbury increased to an eight-month high," Zollner said. "However, despite the November fall, the annual change in the three-month average has found a tentative floor, improving from minus 10 to minus 9 per cent."
The level of job advertisements continued to suggest an unemployment rate of around 7 per cent, give or take 0.2 percentage points, over the next six months, she said.
The official unemployment rate, from the September quarter household labour force survey, is 7.3 per cent.