Unemployment's expected to peak in the middle of the year.  

Stats NZ will release the labour market data for the final quarter of last year at 10.45 this morning. 

It's widely thought the unemployment rate will rise to about 5.1%.  

ANZ economist Henry Russell told Mike Hosking it's a lag statistic, so we'll see last year's economy reflected in the unemployment numbers today and into this year. 

He says their current forecast is for it to peak at 5.5% in the middle of this year. 

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