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10 per cent unemployment rate predicted by year's end

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 5 Aug 2020, 9:40AM
(Photo / Getty Images)
(Photo / Getty Images)

10 per cent unemployment rate predicted by year's end

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 5 Aug 2020, 9:40AM

Employment figures for the June quarter are due out today.

They'll include the Level 4 lockdown and are forecast to be higher than the 4.2 percent recorded for the March quarter.

Senior economist Liz Kendall says the bank is predicting unemployment to sit about 5.7 per cent, similar to what was seen around the Global Financial Crisis.

Kendall told Mike Hosking she expects the number to rise closer to the 9.8 per cent Treasury had forecast, once the wage subsidy ends in September.

"Temporary policies like the wage subsidy have helped keep people in jobs - but for many jobs it's only delaying the inevitable."

Kendall thinks we're only starting to see the beginning of a recession.

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