NZ Unemployment Continues to Climb & LOESS curves

Today's data viz challenge has been using R (stats software) to build a chart of New Zealand's unemployment with a LOESS curve showing the big picture behind the fluctuating data points.  LOESS curves are clever, and R has a function for them, giving you a curving trend line in a way you just couldn't achieve with MS Excel.

Although the task in hand is charting up some data, I was surprised to see just how dramatic the unemployment story is - jobseeker numbers have almost quadrupled in the past three years!

Is this better or worse than other countries?  The mood of the nation doesn't seem as pessimistic as elsewhere, so perhaps others are even worse off.