Lower quality and higher costs have been experienced as a result of outsourcing, 44 percent of public service workers say in the latest New Zealand Productivity Pulse from accounting firm Ernst & Young. The survey suggests the gap between productivity levels in the public sector compared to the private sector totals around $280 million a year. EY also found public …

Electricity companies are absorbing nearly twice as much new cost as they’re passing on to their customers as the retail market for power becomes increasingly competitive, the industry’s regulator, the Electricity Authority, says. Analysis from the EA says the costs facing a theoretical stand-alone retailer have risen faster than residential prices since September 2010, when the authority’s pro-competition agenda started …

New Zealand’s unemployment rate fell to a three-year low in the fourth quarter of 2013 as jobs growth beat expectations, led by gains in the retail, accommodation and hospitality sectors. The unemployment rate fell to 6 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31, in line with the forecast by a Reuters survey of economists, and down from 6.2 percent …