10 Feb 2012

Improvement in jobs not enough yet - Government

8:08 am on 10 February 2012

The Government says jobless figures are heading in the right direction but more needs to be done.

The number of people officially out of work dropped by 7000 to 150,000 in the final three months of last year.

But Radio New Zealand's economics correspondent says the improvement came from an increase in part-time work. Full time jobs fell sharply.

The number of hours worked recorded the biggest fall of any quarter since the middle of 2009.

Economic Development Minister Stephen Joyce says official job numbers can be volatile from quarter-to-quarter, but the trend is in the right direction.