Earlier today, Statistics New Zealand released its monthly labour survey, in which it was announced that the overall unemployment rate in the country has risen to 4.2 per cent in April.
These findings underscore a 0.2 per cent increase in the rate from the 4.0 per cent that was recorded the previous month. Nevertheless, the recent deterioration is smaller than initially anticipated, given that the consensus forecasts were projecting the level of unemployment to have reached 4.4 per cent in April.
The labour force survey demonstrated that the initial hit from the coronavirus fallout has been smaller on the employment conditions in New Zealand than initially feared, however, the labour market is still far from being completely removed from danger.
Nevertheless, the smaller deterioration could be perceived as somewhat welcoming news for the New Zealand dollar, which, similarly to the Aussie, is trying to recover previously lost ground to the greenback.
The NZDUSD currently finds itself trading in a narrow consolidation range between the minor support level at 0.60300 and the minor resistance level at 0.60740, in what could turn out to be a new Accumulation range.