As nations struggle to pull themselves out of the economic malaise created by the global financial crisis, innovation appears to be an enduring theme.

One of Rakon's largest institutional shareholders has almost halved its investment in the high-tech electronic components maker.

Manufacturing grew at the fastest pace in eight months in January but employment in the sector is shrinking.

Rakon's share price dropped by nearly 24pc to an all-time low today after the high-tech components maker cut its earnings guidance for the second time since December.

David Shearer and his cohort of prospective coalition partners, the Greens, Mana and NZ First, are holding a show-trial into who killed the manufacturing industry.

The New Zealand dollar fell by more than half a US cent today after labour data showed that the employment rate fell to its lowest point in 10 years.

Workers who will lose their jobs when the Summit Wool Spinners' Oamaru plant closes could struggle to find work and may have to move, the Otago Chamber of Commerce says.

More leading export companies are on the verge of moving overseas due to the high dollar, Opposition MPs were told yesterday by manufacturers.

A lot of exporters of manufactured products had been waiting for an opportunity to vent anguish over the high exchange rate, writes John Armstrong. The targets of the anger - John Key, the Reserve Bank, Steven Joyce and the Treasury - were absent.

The manufacturing sector ended 2012 much as it had spent the whole year, just barely on the right side of the line between expansion and contraction, the BNZ-Business New Zealand performance of manufacturing index (PMI) indicates.

An uncompetitive economy like ours becomes more and more dependent on those fewer and fewer sectors that can compete in international terms, writes Bryan Gould.

Misleading nutrition and health claims about food will be stopped under new regulations on labelling.

A slowdown from the first half of the year is expected when economic growth figures for the September quarter come out on Thursday.

There is no denying that making products in New Zealand is vital to having a healthy economy.

Manufactured exports have been faring much better than domestic sales.

New Zealand's services sector grew at its fastest recorded pace last month as sales activity rallied, ending a recent horror run of data.