Job advertisements fell marginally in September, according to employment marketplace SEEK.
SEEK’s latest NZ employment report shows despite a 0.5% decrease in September from August, job ads fell a much larger 29% year-on-year.
“For the first time in 12 months applications per job ad also fell,” SEEK’s NZ Country Manager Rob Clark says.
Applications per job, which SEEK records with a one month lag, declined in August, falling 2% month-on-month.
Auckland, Wellington and Bay of Plenty recorded 1% drops in job ads while Waikato and Otago each declined by 3%, SEEK found.
“While Auckland, Wellington and Bay of Plenty recorded small declines, Canterbury bucked the trend, rising 6% month-on-month,” Clark says.
When it came to smaller regions, job ads in Gisborne grew 14% month-on-month while the West Coast reported a 12% decline.
Over the past quarter, three regions have recorded a rise in ad volumes: Bay of Plenty (1%), Northland (3%) and West Coast (12%). Applications per job ad rose month-on-month in Waikato (2%), Taranaki (13%), Tasman (5%) and Gisborne (9%).
SEEK’s report found applications per ad remained steady with no change in Wellington where application per job ad have been rising for 12 months, the longest of all regions.
Most of the large industries recorded only marginal growth or regression in September – or no change at all.
“There is still some movement among the industries, such as in Healthcare & Medical where demand fell 5% and Information & Communication Technology which rose 3% month-on-month, but the rest of the large hiring industries saw only marginal growth and decline in September,” Clark says.
Other more notable job ad declines in September were in engineering and construction, down 11% and 8% respectively.
However this was offset somewhat by job ad growth in the professional services sector, including insurance and superannuation (up 27%), real estate (up 17%) and the legal (up 11%).
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