Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): The Government's economic plan to secure our recovery has led to more New Zealanders in work and higher wages. Today, Statistics New Zealand released the jobs figures for the June 2021 quarter. The data showed that the unemployment rate fell once again to 4 percent from 4.6 percent in March, with 17,000 fewer people unemployed over the quarter. The unemployment rate is now where it was in the pre - COVID-19 December 2019 quarter—and I want to make sure you hear this one, Mr Brownlee: the data also shows that the economy continued to add jobs with 28,000 more people in employment in the June quarter, split evenly between men and women. This meant people in employment are up by 63,000 since the September 2020 quarter when unemployment peaked at 5.3 percent. The underutilisation rate, which gives a broader measure of untapped capacity in the labour market, fell to 10.5 percent from 12.1 percent.