The Council of Trade Unions says new employment statistics show the labour market is far from recovering.
Official figures from Statistics New Zealand released on Wednesday show the number of people in jobs increased over the last quarter, but so did the number unemployed.
Unemployment rose to 6.4% in the three months to June, compared with 6.2% in the previous quarter.The number of people employed increased by 8000 during the period.
CTU secretary Peter Conway says the market is a long way from recovering, with more than 150,000 New Zealanders unemployed and wage increases at the lowest rate since 2010.
Wages grew by 1.7% - the lowest quarterly increase since December 2010 - while demand for workers rose 1.9%, the figures show.
Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens says the labour market is slowly improving but wages are not rising because there's still a surplus of labour.
