Wellington, May 3 : New Zealand's unemployment rate stood at 3.4 per cent in the March 2023 quarter, unchanged from last quarter, with the average hourly wages rising 7.6 per cent, according to figures released by the statistics department on Wednesday. Stats NZ said that the average hourly wages reached NZ$38.93 ($24.3) in the first three months of 2023, Xinhua news agency reported. The underutilisation rate, a broad measure of spare labour capacity that includes those unemployed, underemployed, and in the potential labour force, decreased to 9 percent from 9.3 per cent the previous quarter, it said. Unemployment and underutilization rates have been sitting at or near record lows for more than a year, Stats NZ work and wellbeing statistics senior manager Becky Collett said. In the March 2023 quarter, the labour force participation rate increased to 72 per cent and the employment rate grew to 69.5 per cent. Both are the highest rates recorded since the statistics series began in 1986, Collett said. In the year to the March 2023 quarter, all salary and wage rates (including overtime) gained 4.3 per cent, compared with 4.1 per cent in the year to the December 2022 quarter, statistics showed. New Zealanders are in paid work in record numbers and wages are outpacing inflation as the government's economic plan continues to deliver more jobs and growing wages to help with cost-of-living pressures, said Finance Minister Grant Robertson. "This is a positive result and shows we continue to be in a position of strength to face the challenges ahead, with the economy adding 22,000 jobs in the first three months of the year," he said. /IANS