New Zealand's jobs market has softened, with the unemployment rate rising from 3.6 per cent to 3.9 in the most recent quarter.
On Wednesday, Stats NZ unveiled the new joblessness rate for the September quarter, which was in line with market expectations.
Higher unemployment is expected in response to the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) raising interest rates to tame inflation.
Both Treasury and the RBNZ forecast 3.8 per cent.
NZ has enjoyed generationally low unemployment for the past six years of under five per cent, except for one quarter during the first COVID-19 lockdown.
The uptick means for the first time in at least a decade, Australia - at 3.6 per cent - has lower unemployment than NZ.
The jobless figure bottomed out at 3.2 per cent in late 2021, which was also when the RBNZ began hiking the official cash rate (OCR).
From basement lows of 0.25 per cent during the pandemic, the OCR now sits at 5.5 per cent.
The central bank has paused at its most recent meetings as it waits to see the impact of its tightening, and next meets on November 29.
Wages, and particularly public sector wages, are also on the up.
Average ordinary time hourly earnings were up 6.7 per cent over the past year - hitting $NZ40.40 ($A37.02) - both a boon for workers, but fuelling inflation.
Stats NZ said wage cost inflation, as measured by the labour cost index (LCI), hit 4.3 per cent in the year to September 2023.
"The annual increase to the LCI was driven by an increase to public sector salary and wages," Stats NZ spokesman Bryan Downes said.
"This has been influenced by collective agreements for teachers, nurses, and the NZ Defence Force over the past year."
NZ's working age population grew by 31,000 in the September quarter to 4.22 million people, of which 3.04 million are in work.
A record surge of migrants in the past year has contributed to that population growth.
