For the first time since 2008, the number of people receiving the Unemployment Benefit has dropped says the Minister for Social Development and Employment.
"At one stage mid-year we had an average of 1300 people joining the Unemployment Benefit, so to have more people cancelling their benefit than applying for one is encouraging.
"I'm naturally cautious when it comes to weekly unemployment numbers, because there can be variation between them. However, I didn't want this week's positive result to pass without thanking the staff at Work and Income for their effort in assisting jobseekers into work.
"We've seen record numbers of job vacancies coming in to Work and Income - about 1000 every week. But those are just empty positions, without someone to match a jobseeker to them.
"We know there's a great deal of work to be done to get those on the Unemployment Benefit into jobs. Quite simply, we're not out of the woods yet," Paula Bennett says.