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Today's unemployment data is obviously a big surprise though it needs to be taken with a tiny grain of salt in that it appears that the data is particularly volatile at the monment.
Certainly it has the economists perplexed - most didn't believe the big fall in the first quarter of 2010 was real and now many seem to think today's jump is a correction of some sort.
However, the size of the jump - and the fact that employment itself ie actual job creation declined rather than increased as expected - is a huge disappointment and confirmation of the slow down in the economy that we have seen over the last few months.
It's hard to imagine that it won't affect the Reserve Bank's thinking when it comes to the next interest rate review in September. It is now highly likely that there will be a pause - perhaps more than one from the remainig three this year.
Adding to the woe is the fact that Fonterra now looks likely to downgrade its milk forecast payout, taking the gloss off - although by no means squashing - the export-led recovery.
With these two key bits of data behind us, the focus now turns to the health of corporate New Zealand with company results starting to come through in earnest now.
Already it is shaping up as pretty tough going for the retail sector with Kathmandu failing to meet its profit forecast and warning of a challenging market.
We can only hope that other sectors - in particular companies in the export sector like Rakon, Fisker & Paykel Healthcare and Sanford - fare a little better.
