Wellington, Jun 29 (IANS): Job numbers rose in May 2020 after a substantial fall in April, New Zealand's statistics department Stats NZ said.

The total number of filled jobs rose 0.8 per cent in May, compared with April. This contrasts with the fall of 1.6 percent in April, compared with March 2020, Stats NZ said on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"May saw a turnaround in monthly total filled jobs. The full lockdown throughout April brought reports of businesses hibernating to try to weather the storm with assistance from the wage subsidy," economic statistics manager Sue Chapman said in a statement.

"Businesses re-opened as New Zealand moved to alert level 3 near the end of April and then to level 2 on 13 May, bringing some people back to the workplace," Chapman said.

"The age group of 15- to 24-year-olds were more significantly hit by the job losses seen in April and seem to have had harder time recovering in May than the other age brackets. People in these age groups tend to be doing more part-time and casual work as well as studying," she said.

The number of filled jobs held by women fell more significantly in April and recovered to lesser degree in May than for men over the same period, she added.