The labour force participation rate has been consistently rising over the past 30 years in New Zealand, providing a welcome boost to the labour supply. But can participation keep rising? Read

US President Ronald Reagan is famous for repeatedly using the phrase “trust, but verify”, underscoring the importance of testing assumptions to confirm that claims are true. It’s a phrase that economists also keep in mind when dealing with a vast array of different datasets. Read

New Zealand’s provincial economies contribute greatly to the overall economy, providing dairy, meat, and horticultural products to the nation and overseas export markets. Read

Wages tell us a great deal about the labour market and economy. For businesses, wages reflect the price they are willing to pay for labour, and for workers, wages reflect their willingness to supply labour rather than do other activities with their time. Wages therefore tell us the point where a fir... Read

The challenges of structural ageing and population decline are set to shine through again with subnational population estimates due next month. This article explores previous periods of population decline – looking at how effective migration is at holding back decline, how we should plan for decline, and what has happened to areas which have experienced population decline in our history. Read

For people who are unemployed or are looking for a new job opportunity, it is becoming increasingly difficult to land yourself a role. There is a lack of opportunities in the labour market and a surplus of talent looking for jobs, creating a highly competitive environment for job hunters. Read

The commercial property market has always been more difficult to track and analyse than the housing market. Whereas the latter has a wealth of data available from REINZ, CoreLogic, and other sources, much of our non-residential work relies on collecting piecemeal data from several different commerci... Read

New Zealanders’ knowledge of Asia is at an all-time high. In Asia New Zealand Foundation's annual New Zealanders' Perceptions of Asia 2024 survey, 59% percent of respondents to the 2024 survey reported knowing ‘at least a fair amount’ about Asia, up from just 33% ten years ago. Here we look at the numbers behind the rising Asian population and workforce in New Zealand. Read

Weaker economic activity and falling employment are hitting regional economies, with the economic crunch deepening across the country, according to Infometrics’ latest monitoring of regional economies. Read

The verdict is in for the Reserve Bank: the weight of evidence against it from economists, financial markets, businesses, and broader public opinion left the Bank with little choice but to retract its May Monetary Policy Statement and effectively plead guilty to previously misreading the economy. Read