3. Economy—Employment and WagesDAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) to the Minister of FinanceEconomy—Employment and Wages3. DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) to the Minister of Finance: What reports has he received on the economy?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Earlier today Statistics New Zealand released its latest data on employment and wages. Unemployment has fallen to 4.9 percent its lowest level since the global financial crisis supported by a 1.4 percent lift in employment and a 1.2 percent lift in hours worked in the September quarter. In the last year 144000 jobs have been added to the economy. The labour force participation rate has reached 70.1 percent which is the highest level in the 30-year history of the household labour force survey and New Zealand's employment rate—that is the proportion of the population in employment—is now the second-highest in the OECD.David Bennett: How are rising wages and low inflation putting more spending power in the pockets of New Zealand households?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Statistics New Zealand reports that average weekly wages increased 1.9 percent in the last year led by wage increases for nurses primary school teachers and the police. Over the same period inflation was just 0.2 percent which means real increases in New Zealanders' wages. This confirms that the economy is generating higher incomes and more jobs for families and households.David Bennett: How is broad-based economic growth helping to support regional growth?Hon BILL ENGLISH: One aspect of the statistics that is particularly pleasing is the falling unemployment rate in many regions particularly the West Coast Manawatū Whanganui Northland and the Waikato with a number of regions having unemployment under 5 percent and some even under 4 percent—a testament to the excellent efforts of the Minister for Economic Development the Hon Steven Joyce as well as the resilience of our resource-based regional economies. There are some other aspects of the release that are positive. There are fewer unemployed women down to 5.1 percent from 5.4 percent. The unemployment rate for Māori and Pasifika is still too high but both have dropped by about 2 percent over the last year.David Bennett: What reports has he received showing how elevated business optimism is supporting a strong investment outlook for New Zealand?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No one gets a job unless a business decides to take the risk of hiring a person and employment does not go up unless they take the risk of hiring an extra person over and above the staff that they already have. The ANZ Business Outlook survey reports a net 38 percent of businesses are optimistic about their own prospects for the year ahead and 21 percent of them are expecting to hire new staff. Importantly a net 19 percent intend to invest. These expectations for more investment and more jobs are above the long-term average. Residential and commercial building intentions are particularly strong.Grant Robertson: Can the Minister confirm that today's release shows that there are 3000 more actual people unemployed than there were at the start of the year?Hon BILL ENGLISH: That may well be the case but fortunately there are a lot more people in work and for those who are not in work there are two things going for them: one is that they are in one of the faster-growing economies in the developed world so the opportunities are as good here as anywhere and secondly for those who are not in work and are in the welfare system the Government has in place a comprehensive process to support those people getting back into work.