Unemployment drops to 7-year low in Auckland but rises elsewhere

Unemployment benefit rolls have dropped. File photo

Unemployment benefit rolls have dropped to a seven-year low in Auckland, but are now rising again in 10 of New Zealand's 14 other regions.

The latest Social Development Ministry statistics suggest that the Auckland economy is still powering ahead even faster than the city's influx of people, with the numbers on jobseeker support benefits plunging by 9.4 per cent in the year to September, from 39,405 to 35,711.

This is the lowest number since September 2008, when just 23,420 Aucklanders received either the old unemployment benefit or the sickness benefit, which was merged into jobseeker support in 2013.

But outside Auckland the post-recession recovery has gone into reverse in line with declining dairy prices, with jobseeker numbers up 10.2 per cent in the past year in Taranaki and 5.4 per cent in the Waikato.

Jobseeker rolls also increased in Northland, Gisborne, Wellington and all South Island regions except Nelson-Tasman. Apart from Auckland, the other North Island regions where the numbers fell were Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and Manawatu-Wanganui.

However continued Work and Income emphasis on helping (or pushing) sole parents into work saw a further 6.5 per cent drop in numbers on sole parent support benefits nationally to just 67,887 people - the lowest in a generation. The last time sole-parent beneficiaries were so few was in 1986, when there were 62,570 on the old domestic purposes benefit.

As a result, overall benefit numbers continued to fall in the past year in all regions except Taranaki, Waikato, Gisborne, Wellington, Marlborough and Southland.

The national total of 287,167 beneficiaries was the lowest for any September quarter since 2008.

Social Development Minister Anne Tolley said sole parent numbers dropped in all regions including falls of 9.3 per cent in Auckland and 6.8 per cent in Northland.

"Moving off benefit and into work is good for the whole family," she said. "It puts more money in the pockets of parents and breaks the cycle of intergenerational welfare dependence, allowing families to thrive."

However only 44 per cent of the 7345 people who went off sole parent support in the three months to September were recorded as leaving because they obtained work or started earning more than the allowable income.

The others transferred to another benefit (21 per cent), left the country (4 per cent), became fulltime students (4 per cent), failed to reapply a year after they got the benefit (2 per cent), were jailed (1 per cent) or went off the benefit for "other" reasons (24 per cent).