Time is ticking for our economic recovery - with unemployment still a pressing issue

Westpac Bank's Economic Overview for August has revealed the unemployment rate's due to peak at 5.3-percent by the end of the year, and decline in the two years after.

It's also found annual GDP growth should strengthen to 2.4-percent this year, and around 3.1-percent next year.

Westpac NZ Chief Economist Kelly Eckhold say signs of falling unemployment rates should come around Christmas.

He says there were concerns a few years ago that unemployment could go all the way up to 6-percent before turning around.