Feb 07, 2018 - The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent in the December 2017 quarter, down from 4.6 percent last quarter, Stats NZ said today.  “This quarter’s unemployment rate is the lowest since the December 2008 quarter, when it was 4.4 percent,” labour market and household statistics senior manager Jason Attewell said. “However, the underutilisation rate was just over 12 percent –reflecting about 340,000 New Zealanders with potential to work more. This measure is just as important as the unemployment rate.”

Feb 07, 2018  - Callaghan Innovation spent taxpayer money on suit hire and pedometers as part of their $304,000 entertainment expense blowout in 2015/16.  New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says, “Among their laundry list of ‘entertainment’ expenses, Callaghan spent $185 on suit hire at Munns in Auckland for a staff member to attend an awards ceremony.”

Feb 07, 2018  -  A businessman who gave up in the face of ''too much bureaucracy'' while seeking funding from government agency Callaghan Innovation has been left outraged at news of its multimillion-dollar entertainment bill.

Feb 07, 2018  -  British manufacturer Dyson will open an office in New Zealand in May and says it could use the country and as a test bed for future products, which are set to include electric vehicles.  Tom Pullar-Strecker reports on  Stuff this morning that the company's  Sydney-based managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Glenn Andrew, told Stuff that the New Zealand business would initially employ about a dozen staff and Dyson was looking for recruits through its website. 

 Feb 6, 2018  - Emirates Engineering has announced an agreement with Qantas for aircraft maintenance, including the stripping and repainting of eight Qantas A380 aircraft starting next month.

The aircraft will be repainted with the latest Qantas livery at the state of the art Emirates Aircraft Appearance Centre in Dubai. The agreement also covers the replacement of landing gear for one Qantas A380 aircraft by Emirates Engineering this month.

"We are delighted to be working with Qantas for maintenance on their A380 aircraft. As the largest operator of Airbus A380s with over 100 aircraft in our fleet, Emirates Engineering has built strong expertise over the years in the maintenance and repainting of this aircraft type," said Mohammed Jaffar Nasser, senior vice president of Engineering Maintenance.

"We have worked hard to create efficiencies and productivity gains across all lines of maintenance, thereby freeing capacity and allowing us to offer our services and know-how to external customers. Our goal is to promote Dubai as a centre of excellence for Airbus A380 maintenance. We have the knowledge, infrastructure, competence and the confidence to achieve this goal," he added.

Emirates operates all-A380 daily services from Auckland and Christchurch to Dubai and beyond.

The maintenance agreement between Emirates and Qantas complements the strategic commercial partnership that is in place between the two airlines and heralds the start of collaboration in the areas of maintenance and engineering.

The Emirates Aircraft Appearance Centre is the world’s largest dedicated aircraft painting facility owned by an airline. During the last financial year, Emirates Engineering completed 38 aircraft paint makeovers at its dedicated paint hangar.

In addition, the centre has also installed a number of customised and eye-catching decals on Emirates’ fleet of Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft including most recently the tribute livery of the late HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the United Arab Emirates, and special decals dedicated to Expo 2020 Dubai.

Emirates received its first A380 in 2008 and is today the largest operator of this aircraft type with 101 of the world’s largest commercial passenger aircraft currently in its fleet. The airline’s engineering division operates modern, extensive facilities in Dubai that include seven heavy maintenance hangars and four light maintenance hangars that can all accommodate the A380s. It also the most experienced and equipped Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) provider in the world for the iconic double decker aircraft with over 110 A380 C-Checks completed to date.

| An  EmiratesEngineering release    ||  February 06, 2018   |||

5 Feb, 2018  -  MITO is thrilled to launch its new training programme that leads to the New Zealand Certificate in Heavy Automotive Engineering – a new and innovative programme that significantly enhances the training opportunities in New Zealand’s heavy automotive industry.

Feb 05, 2018 - The Labour Inspectorate and Immigration New Zealand (INZ) found increased employment and immigration compliance in the West Coast following visits to businesses in the region last week.  The visits form part of the Inspectorate’s and INZ’s proactive work to ensure businesses are following the law when it comes to employees’ minimum workplace standards and visa conditions.

Feb 05, 2018  -  The Taxpayers’ Union has referred Callaghan Innovation to the Ombudsman over their abuse of the Annual Report process to avoid responsibilities under the Official Information Act. 

Feb 2, 2018  - Building consents for all non-residential buildings including offices, education buildings, storage, and cultural buildings were worth $6.5 billion in 2017, up 8 percent from the December 2016 year, Stats NZ said today.

Feb 2, 2018  -  For the December 2017 year, both overseas visitors and New Zealand residents had record numbers of arrivals and departures, Stats NZ said today.

In the last calendar year 3.73 million overseas visitors came to New Zealand, 6.7 percent more than in 2016. Just over half of these overseas visitors were holidaymakers, and 30 percent travelled to New Zealand to visit friends and family.

“The record number of overseas visitors in 2017 is about the same as the number of residents living in the North Island as at 30 June 2017,” population statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said. “Annual overseas visitor numbers have been generally rising since mid-2013.”

New Zealand residents took a record 2.9 million trips overseas in 2017, 9.3 percent more than in 2016. New Zealanders holidaying overseas accounted for 44 percent of all resident departures.

Australia was the top source of visitors and the top destination for New Zealand-resident travellers in 2017. Over the year, 40 percent of overseas visitors were from Australia and 45 percent of all trips by New Zealand residents were to Australia. The second-highest source of visitors was China (11 percent).

Continue here to read the full article on the STATSNZ website   ||  February 2, 2018   |||