Paula Bennett

The number of people on benefits rose 0.7% in August but despite this, thousands of beneficiaries continued to find jobs says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.

Last month 6,596 people cancelled their benefit because they found work.

This is 19% higher than the same month in 2009 and 22% higher than it was in August 2007, before the recession.

"It's fantastic to see determined New Zealanders finding jobs despite a tight labour market and a slowly recovering economy," says Ms Bennett.

As anticipated, Unemployment Benefit figures increased slightly last month from 63,059 to 63,910.

"This is largely attributed to winter lay-offs in agricultural areas including the East Coast, Bay of Plenty, Central North Island and Taranaki," says Ms Bennett.

"At the same time we saw a 1.5% reduction in the number of people on an Unemployment Benefit in Northland," says Ms Bennett.

New Zealand is well below other comparable countries in terms of the percentage of the population aged 15-64 on an unemployment related benefit.

In New Zealand, 2.2% of 15-64 year olds fall into this category, compared with 4.6% in Australia 3.5% in UK, 15.4% in Ireland and 3% in Canada.

The number of people receiving a benefit is 336,333.