Sizeable jumps in unemployment rates in Waikato, Taranaki, Otago and Southland have shown that weakness in the economy has shifted into heartland New Zealand.
As the New Zealand unemployment rate rose to 6%, the highest rate in nine years, the seasonally unadjusted rate in Waikato rose from 5.8% in March to 6.8% in June.
In Taranaki, the unemployment rate rose from 2.7% to 4.2%, in Otago it went up from 4.4% to 5.3%, and in Southland it went from 2.6% to 3.4%.
Southland maintained a high labour-force participation rate, at 71.6%, but it was down on the 74.1% recorded in March.
The Otago participation rate held steady, falling from 66.1% in March to 66% in June.
Otago has 5700 people out of work and 100,400 in work, Statistics New Zealand figures show.
The region has a total working-age population of 160,700.
The regional figures have always been volatile and over the years, Statistics NZ has put the sharp changes in unemployment, working-age population or participation rate down to students arriving or leaving the region.
Sometimes, changes to benefit entitlements have resulted in people moving off sickness or invalid benefits to the unemployment benefit in one quarter and being shifted back three months later.
