Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Today, the latest household labour force survey was released. It shows unemployment has remained at near-record lows, thanks to the Government's economic plan to support households and businesses through the challenging global environment, resulting in more people in work and wages rising. While we always have to be careful about the regional data in this survey due to low sample numbers, it was heartening to see these strong national numbers reflected in our regions. My original home region of Taranaki continued a trend of falling unemployment since December 2021, dropping to only 1.8 percent. This is the lowest unemployment rate in Taranaki since the survey began, and represents 1,600 less people unemployed than at this time last year. With New Plymouth seeing a 15 percent decrease in the number of people receiving jobseeker work-ready support in the year to June 2022, it is clear that this Government's focus on employment upskilling and training is paying off for Taranaki. 