Westpac-McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index, June 2025
'A perceived lack of job opportunities remains the key concern for New Zealand households,' said Michael Gordon, Senior Economist at Westpac. 'This measure has been low, but relatively stable, over recent quarters.'
'These results are encouraging in the sense that they suggest the rise in the unemployment rate over the last couple of years may be peaking,' said Mr Gordon. 'That said, people were more pessimistic this quarter about an improvement in job prospects in the year ahead.'
The survey results were mixed across regions. Southland saw the biggest improvement for the quarter and is now the most confident region. However, other dairying-intensive regions such as Waikato and Taranaki fared poorly. Among the main centres, Auckland saw a solid lift in confidence, but Wellington and Christchurch were down slightly.
'Confidence amongst employees working in the private sector has further eroded this quarter with a drop of 2.9 points down to 85.0, while public sector employees' confidence has increased 7 points up to 96.2,' noted Imogen Rendall, Market Research Director of McDermott Miller Limited.
'Public sector employees are beginning to take a more optimistic view of the availability of jobs and their personal job security over the coming year, which accounts for their increasing confidence. Private sector employees, in contrast, are taking an increasingly pessimistic view of the current job market and future job opportunities over the coming year. They continue to remain concerned for their personal job security. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the months to come,' commented Ms Rendall.
The survey was conducted over 1-12 June 2025, with a sample size of 1,550. An index number over 100 indicates that optimists outnumber pessimists. The margin of error of the survey is 2.5%.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
6 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
'Rewriting of history': Robertson stands by Covid spending
By Russell Palmer of RNZ Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson is standing by his economic spending decisions, and rejects the suggestion the last Labour government did not have enough real-world experience. He says Labour was "absolutely" ready for government when Winston Peters chose the party over National in 2017, and the high volume of working groups was a result of wanting to include people in the areas "where there was big change required". Robertson was being interviewed by Susie Ferguson on RNZ to promote his new book Anything Could Happen, which is available in bookstores from today. Covid-19 spending: 'Rewriting of history' He says Labour's election loss in 2023 was primarily because it was a "cost of living election". "There were other issues that sit beside that ... crime in Auckland was a big deal through that period of time, Covid, there was still some hangover from ... and just how much we'd been in people's lives. "I remember, and I recount in the book, door knocking in Wellington Central in that '23 campaign and a woman thanking me for for the work that we'd done and said 'but you've had nine years, and I think it's time for a change'. "It took me quite a while to convince her we had only had six. It sort of felt like nine for people because we were so involved in everybody's lives, but I fundamentally believe the core issue was around the cost of living - and people look for a change often when that's happening." Despite that, he stood by the fiscal decisions made at the time. "Treasury and others, as has been reported recently, were saying to us 'you need to be careful about the impact of what you're doing on inflation, on the economy' - and we knew that. "But as I say, Delta arrived August 2021, we had to deal with that - and actually the Treasury supported us continuing on with the spending that we were doing. It's a bit of a rewriting of history to be frank, to say that they didn't." He said the government did not know how long Covid was going to last, or the severity of the health or economic impacts - and was criticised by political opponents for not spending more in late 2021. "I remember vividly the day I got the report from Treasury in early 2020 to tell me that we were facing a scenario of 13.5 percent unemployment, and from my perspective as the person dealing more with the economic rather than the health side I just knew I wasn't going to stand by and let that happen." The Covid Recovery Fund was closed in 2022 but "then we get to the 2023 Budget and we're dealing with the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle". "We all knew that we had to be careful with where we went, and we didn't introduce in large number of new measures after late 2021 but we did carry on with the ones we had, because we still needed to look after New Zealanders and businesses. "I get it that by 2022 the whole country - including us - was thoroughly sick of Covid." He said the more deadly Delta variant had needed additional support and interventions, and while the country reopening did not happen as fast as some would like, "we stayed the course on saving lives", pointing to a report from Michael Plank showing excess death rates significantly lower in New Zealand compared to other countries. Covid-19 division: 'This is not New Zealand' The policies were divisive though, and Robertson said his emotional response to the protest on Parliament's lawn was that "this is not New Zealand". As MP for Wellington at the time, he was perturbed seeing the physical and mental damage after the country pulled together during the pandemic. "They were being spat at for wearing masks, there were students going to the high schools around the area who had to be supported by security guards, and I just had that feeling 'this is not the country that I am so proud to be a part of'." "That was the big emotion that I had. And the fire, I remember thinking gosh, as well as the children's playground that's there in Parliament you've got two huge old trees that have been in the grounds forever and they appeared to be going up in smoke as well and it was just horrifying to watch. And then the violence that just followed on from that." He and other former ministers Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins and Ayesha Verrall refused to attend the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry's public hearings last week. He said he felt he had cooperated, but was concerned about the nature of the public hearings, and "the precedent effect of calling ministers and former minsters to that, the capacity for material to be misused". "I think for me I'm up to about four and a half hours of interviews. When I finished my last set of interviews recently one of the staff at the Royal Commission said 'you've answered all of our questions and more', I left that meeting saying 'look, if you've got any further questions let us know'. He referred to the phrase the former ministers used in explaining why they were not appearing, that it would be performative, not informative. "This is meant to be a lessons learned exercise, I welcomed that, I think it's great that we've learned the lessons of Covid - but I think it was moving in a direction that was not really about that." Politics: 'We had a very clear plan' Robertson said Peters' announcement that he would go into government with Labour in 2017 was an "extraordinary few minutes in politics for everybody in New Zealand" - a genuine moment of not knowing what would happen. But Labour was, he said, "absolutely ready for government", pointing to the first 100 days plan, which included the Families Package: Family Tax credits, Best Start payments for young families, Winter Energy payments for older and poorer New Zealanders, and Accommodation Supplement increases. The government also set up the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care, and brought in a free first year of tertiary education. "We had a very clear plan. We also inherited a number of areas where there was big change required, and we wanted to involve and include people in that, and that's where you get working groups and so on coming from. "I felt like, you know, we balanced together some really important immediate issues that we were addressing, along with getting into those bigger topics which eventually turned into quite substantive change in the health system, vocational education, resource management and so on." He rejected the suggestion the 2017 Labour caucus had too many career politicians, and too little experience outside of politics. "I don't accept that at all. I mean, we had a good range of skills and backgrounds and experiences in our Cabinet." He said his understanding of the political and Parliamentary system was valuable, but he also learnt a lot about people from being an electorate MP. His electorate office was across the road from the Work and Income office and he would watch the people "at the end of their tether who we were there to help". "The same with refugees who resettled, or people who were struggling with housing, or the health system - you learn a lot, and we're all part of our communities, whatever working background that we might have had." Ardern approached him to take over from her when she was planning to step down as prime minister. Robertson said various factors led him to refuse the job - particularly, that he had seen what it required. "I obviously looked at Jacinda's decision in two ways. One was as her friend, where I could absolutely understand the reasons why she wanted to step away. As her political colleague, I was clearly concerned about what that meant for us as a government, and where we were heading." He said physical and mental health played a part in his decision not to take on the role, along with threats and abuse he faced towards the end of the Covid-19 response - but it was his decision years earlier not to pursue it that was a bigger factor. "And I felt that knowing up close what being prime minister was about, you need to be able to give that 120 percent, you can't go into it with any suggestion of doubts of whether you want to do the job - that would be incredibly selfish to do that. "So really those considerations were bigger for me." Childhood challenges Robertson's book also covers his early years as the son of a lay minister, as the sports-mad youngest of three boys, his struggles with telling his family about his sexuality, and the shock of his father's imprisonment. He told RNZ his father being sentenced for stealing from his employer was "devastating" both personally for him as a young student and for his family, particularly his mother. With her husband in jail and her children studying, the family had little income at that point. "My father was obviously the person who had to go to prison, and he'd done something very stupid to put himself in that position. But it reverberates quickly. "I loved my father very much. I was angry with him about what he'd done. He'd let down a lot of people around him and breached the trust of a lot of people around him, but I still needed to be there for him. "And so the next sort of 18 months or so that he was in prison, I visited him pretty much every week and learned a lot about what is good and mostly about what is bad in our prison system. And you know, just try to support him as best I could, but it was a devastating blow for everybody." He said he was fascinated as a 12-year-old by the 1984 election "which marks me out as a complete nerd, I realise", but politics was often discussed and debated within the family. "My mother is a very political person with strong views, and we heard about them a lot when we were at home. And you know that, I guess, flowed through to me." Opening up to his family about being gay was more of a struggle, however. "I didn't really have a word for it for a while, but particularly around the period of the Homosexual Law Reform Act that - obviously, there was huge debate, it was not a positive debate ... so that was, unfortunately for me, almost exactly the time that I was coming to understand that I probably was gay. "And I was growing up in the church and while it was a fairly liberal church environment it still, there was connotations and negativity ... I kind of kept it in a box for a long time. "One or two friends sort of found out, and then I had an unfortunate incident where I got very, very drunk and went to a party and the subject my sexuality was on show in a really unfortunate way ... I had a very supportive family through that period, and friends as well. But like a lot of teenagers, I was doing some pretty risky things while I was working out who I was."
Otago Daily Times
7 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Letters to the Editor: cycleway concerns, voting, great exhibition
Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including concern for businesses if the Albany St cycleway goes ahead, the right to vote and a great exhibition. 'Green woke idealism' puts businesses at risk I offer my support to the business operators of Albany St facing the proposed parking changes to the contentious cycleway. Trying to encourage retail shoppers foot traffic in a shopping district is a fool's errand. People don't shop in retail and hospitality districts, cars do, thus plentiful and convenient car parking is essential to the survival of these business operators and the security of their staff's ongoing employment. The proposed Albany St cycleway project is nothing other than in the name of green woke idealism and will put every business at risk. A classic example of this sort of nonsense can be seen in Tauranga, where the council is re-visiting the rationalisation of retail district car parking and re-engaging with businesses. Our council must be more proactive, rather than reactive, to all our business operators and we can only hope that there is distinctive shift in the mindset post the forthcoming local body elections. Greg Glendining Dunedin Hill suburbs Cr O'Malley has an obsession with cycling. The sooner he notices Dunedin ratepayers live on the side of hills or on the other side of hills the better. Dunedin residents who live in flat areas do so for multiple reasons but not because they ride bicycles. Ratepayers are sick of money wasted on vanity projects when more urgent important work is required for health and safety of some of our residents. Decisions as important as this should be left for an incoming council not rushed through just before an election. Mary Robertson Dunedin Temporary address Metiria Stanton Turei's opinion piece (ODT 8.8.25) was another worthy piece of reading. However I agree with correspondent Gaye Gardner from Alexandra that not being able to enrol late is not disadvantaging anyone but those who cannot be bothered getting organised. A late enrolment to me means the person has likely not studied the candidates and what they stand for, which is not participating properly in your democratic right to vote. Just trying to get a more efficient system with this law change does not mean anyone is disenfranchised. But prisoners are still citizens, who are being punished for crime and hopefully rehabilitated, and their citizenship is a separate issue and should not be part of a punishment. Your temporary address should not stop you from voting locally or nationally, that is an example of disenfranchising. Ian McGimpsey Owaka Respond to invite I am disappointed that the leaders responsible for the Covid response have declined an invitation to attend in person and answer questions. Many people still have mistrust and suspicion regarding decisions made during Covid. If the decision-makers did appear it may alleviate some of this mistrust. Many people were hurt, felt abandoned and alienated. In addition they were called conspiracy theorists and misinformed. All were New Zealanders who felt their basic human rights were abused. When people are accused of these things and not listened to it just entrenches their beliefs, whether right or wrong. This is not about right or wrong decisions, it is acknowledging the real trauma caused to many. If we are going to tackle future pandemics there must be greater unity and open debate. Many felt totally shut down from expressing their real concerns and opinions. Alan Paterson North East Valley Of great exhibitions and electric sandwiches Thanks Otago Daily Times for Paul Gorman's timely article on the 100-year anniversary of the New Zealand International South Seas Exhibition. ( The Weekend Mix , 16.8.25). My late parents often spoke about it. My mother worked as a telephone exchange operator. A special manual exchange had been installed to cope with the extra calls and she said the temporary equipment gave unwary operators electric shocks. My father's favourite amusement park ride was ''The Whip''. I have a gold-framed picture of ''The Grand Dome at Night''. On the back are the words: ''This picture was won on the last day of the exhibition.'' The event showed the extraordinary vision of Dunedin's civic leaders at the time. My regret is that the exhibition was temporary and not permanent. Imagine still having those buildings today. Graeme Clode St Kilda Smart devices The New Zealand Secondary Industries Pavilion from the 1925 Exhibition (100 Years Ago 12.8.25) gave us the promise of electric sandwiches in which the bread is cut and butter spread without any human agency, and likewise meat is prepared. The Tramp, in Modern Times (1936), comically demonstrated the same banality and injudiciousness of automatisation. Woefully, 100 years on, our aesthetic faculties and very imagination is now subject to infantilisation and enslavement through AI and, paradoxically, ''smart'' devices. Irian Scott Port Chalmers Being clear on who is standing up for whom I do not consider that the ODT should publish letters that either deliberately or through ignorance misrepresent the views of others, such as Russell Garbutt's letter (15.8.25) which is deliberately inflammatory. He claimed that the Greens' ''vehemently support Hamas'' when it is clearly the Palestinian people the Greens are standing up for, as I presume Russell Garbutt well knows. Many would probably agree with his comments without any reference to Hamas. Peter de Boer Broad Bay Speaking out The Israeli government and their local apologists choose not to distinguish between Hamas, the perpetrators of the October 7 atrocity, and the Palestinian people at large. The result is possibly the most blatant and shameless war crime of our generation: retribution on a population by bombing their homes, hospitals and universities, by starving their children, and by repeated forced displacement. We should be grateful to leaders who speak clearly on this. The rest have their conscience and ultimately the voters to contend with. Murray Efford Wakari Bad neighbours Even the most optimistic observer can surely see that President Trump putting the onus now on Ukraine's President Zelenskyy to find peace is turning negotiations on their head. The US leader failed to get what he wanted in his Alaska meeting with Russia's Putin - a ceasefire - drops his threats against Russia and reportedly says now it's Zelenskyy who on his revisit to Washington needs to find a final solution for peace. No wonder Putin is smiling. It's a sorry state of affairs after a peaceful democracy has been invaded and pummelled for more than three years by its bully of a neighbour. Graeme Pennell Maori Hill Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@
Newsroom
15 hours ago
- Newsroom
City of No Sales: What's wrong with Auckland?
Auckland's been labelled the City of Fails after its annual State of the City report which highlighted glaring issues with the city's economy, productivity, innovation, education and more. Its flagging GDP, city sprawl, reliance on cars, a lack of walkability … the condemnation goes on. But it wasn't just this one report. Other issues have been regularly highlighted this year – the sudden increase in homelessness; endless road works and construction from the City Rail Link development; gaping holes where CBD developments have just stopped, the cranes in cold storage. All this while the South Island and rural communities are showing sparks of coming out of recession in a post-Covid era. It's a tale of two different economic recoveries. The Detail looks at what's wrong with Auckland, what's right and what needs to be done to make it better. The CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber, Simon Bridges, has been pushing the Government to come to the aid of the city, where he's seeing the results of weak economic growth, a lack of investment and flagging retail trade. He says he's tried to put politics aside but yes, it's possible his former job as leader of the National Party has helped his advocacy. 'I think central government is listening,' he says. 'I think what we need to see now is just a bit of urgent action. If you think about Auckland, we've had several years of difficulty and you might say well, what's several more months? But the reality is even if things do get a bit better next year, there's a lot of pain out there. 'I've put forward some ideas of things that could be done, but I don't have a monopoly on the answers. Ultimately what we want to see happen is stuff that is going to improve the sentiment and get some spending happening, because if Auckland was a business it would be a business with a cashflow issue.' So far the Government hasn't raced in to help with any short-term stimulus. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told RNZ he would 'keep looking at what we can do' but 'Auckland-specific stimulus thing is quite difficult to do … I don't know how you'd go about doing that.' Bridges has given him a bunch of ideas, including relaxing visa requirements for Asian tourists to make it easier for them to come here, encouraging international students and letting Mayor Wayne Brown have his bed levy as a way of increasing council income and bidding for more big events to come to the city. 'We're not rich enough that we don't need that money swilling around at a time when in Auckland at least, hotel rates – occupancy and so on – is very bad. Worse than last year actually.' There are some bright lights on the horizon, including the scheduled opening next year of the long-awaited City Rail Link, and the International Convention Centre. However the infrastructure pipeline behind that is looking bleak, especially with government moves to cap rates rises, block councils from using other methods to raise money, and now the introduction of some hasty rules telling councils what they should focus on and how they should behave. The Local Government (Systems Improvement) Amendment Bill, which councils have just four weeks to submit on, tells them to stick to core services like roads, rubbish and water, and get rid of nice-to-haves like spending on cultural, community and environmental things – things the city is measured on internationally. North Shore resident Hayden Donnell is a senior writer for the Spinoff. He thinks the city is improving, and can list a raft of places in the CBD where it's lively, pedestrian-friendly and full of great cafes and restaurants. Donnell talks to The Detail about the good and the bad, including beaches, buses and bad planning rules. 'I think we probably are a little bit negative about Auckland,' he says. 'Maybe we do undersell the fact that we have this beautiful natural environment, there's a lot of places that are going really well. 'At the same time I think it's true … there are lots of areas where we could improve, where the rest of the world has caught up with this thing called 'walkable areas' and 'pedestrian malls' … that kind of vibrant shopping that you can go to Europe and experience doesn't really happen here to the same extent. 'But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we're very fortunate.' Something Aucklanders do have is Auckland FC, which has lit the city up with it's nearly all-conquering ways this year breaking A-League crowd records in its debut season. The director of Auckland Football is Terry McFlynn, who grew up in a little village in south Derry, Northern Ireland. He's lived in Perth, Sydney and London. Now he lives in Auckland. 'There's a lot of people that take a lot of pride in Auckland as a city and want to see it progress, and want to see a vibrant city, which I believe it is. 'I think the restaurants and bars and that lifestyle that Auckland can give around the viaduct and down by the harbour … you know it's second to none in the whole world in my opinion.' Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here. You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
