Underutilisation hits 13.8 percent as 440,000 New Zealanders left without enough work

New Zealand's underutilisation rate rose 0.8 percentage points to 13.8 percent in the June 2026 quarter, Stats NZ reported on 5 August. Some 440,000 people are now underutilised — up 31,000 on the quarter. That increase is more than four times the 7,000 rise in unemployment, pointing to labour market slack the headline rate of 5.6 percent does not fully capture.