A major bank believes unemployment will remain fairly flat this year, rather than anything catastrophic.

The national rate dipped slightly to 5.3% in the first three months of this year.

ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley told Ryan Bridge says he's not overly pessimistic about the next couple of quarters.

But he cautions the next few months are really the danger zone as businesses hunker down and defer some decisions.

Youth unemployment is up from 13.3% to 14.4%.

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