Job advertisements have risen for the first time on a month-on-month basis since July, employment marketplace SEEK says, although it was only a 1% increase.
On a yearly basis, SEEK's latest NZ employment report shows job ads were down 21% compared to a year ago, which is the slowest rate of decline in 18 months.
“Any increase in job ad volume is positive news at this stage, though this is only the second time job ads have risen this year, and only by 1%,” SEEK Country Manager Rob Clark says.
Job ad increases in New Zealand’s largest regions during November contributed to the national increase in ad volumes. Job ads rose 1% in Auckland, and 3% in Wellington and Christchurch.
“There were nominal month-on-month rises in Wellington, Canterbury and Auckland which solidifies a period of relative stability for these regions over the past five months, after over a year of broad decline,” Clark says.
The regions with the largest job ad declines were Bay of Plenty and Northland which both reported a 5% decline in advertisements during November.
Waikato also recorded a 4% fall and Otago experienced a 2% decline in job ads.
SEEK’s employment report says Marlborough, which recorded a 13% decline in job ads in October, went in the opposite direction in November, and job ads rose 12%.
Applications per job, which SEEK records with a one month lag, rose 3% in October when compared with application levels in September.
All regions recorded “rising levels” of applications per job advertisement year-on-year, led by Wellington (up 65%), Hawke's Bay ( up 60%) and Gisborne (up 60%).
SEEK’s employment report says month-on-month there was notable growth in the industrial sectors and rising demand for workers in the mining and energy sector (up 15%), construction (up 13%) and manufacturing and transport (up 5%).
Job ad volumes in the professional services sector recorded declines in healthcare (down 7%), hospitality and tourism (down 5%) and retail (down 5%).
However, job ad volumes for government roles have risen 55% since June, after falling steeply in the previous six months due to public sector job cuts.
Roles in banking and financial services have also reported a positive turnaround. SEEK’s employment report says demand for those roles “fell dramatically” towards the end of 2023, but since September 2024 job ads in that area have risen 31%.
“While demand for workers in most industries has declined throughout the year there are some that have bucked the trend, notably banking and financial services where ad volumes have boomed over the past two months,” Clark says.
Salaries on the up
SEEK’s quarterly Advertised Salary Index (ASI) found advertised salaries continued to rise in the November 2024 quarter, up 3.1% compared to the same period a year ago.
On a quarterly basis, the ASI rose by a smaller 0.7%
Education and training salaries reported the biggest annual increase of 6.3% and SEEK’s ASI report says a significant growth in international students had increased demand in the sector.
Insurance and superannuation salaries were close behind, up an annual 5.6%, while engineering and government salaries have risen 5.5% and 5.3% since November last year.
“Although the rate of annual growth continued to slow, average advertised salaries continue to outpace the annual inflation rate,” Clark says.
NZ’s headline inflation rate fell to 2.2% in the September quarter.
14 Comments
Are we just catching up now?
The percentages above are meaningless. They tell you nothing.
Here is the reality.
During the post-Covid jobs boom, late 2021 to mid 2022, just before the RBNZ induced recession, TradeMe Jobs reached 22,000 vacancies.
You can go to https://www.trademe.co.nz/jobs and see their current vacancy number = 8,309
Available jobs have plummeted to about 38% of the high point.
Speak to any employer who lists a vacancy on Seek or TradeMe, they will tell you they are receiving hundreds of applicants.
If you list a generic vacancy suited to a semi-skilled younger person, the applicant numbers could be close to a thousand.
1% up here, 1% down there, is a drop in the ocean.
Very true. I was at a gathering with some 30 recent graduates. Very few had found jobs. Most were 'waiting tables' and not getting enough work and looking for more work outside their their degrees. Most are considering going back to further their studies ... but most will struggle to afford it.
if I were them, I'd shoot over to Oz and get an agricultural job for a few months in the middle of nowhere with good money, and nowhere to spend. Bolster the savings then go travelling for a bit and ride out the downturn until things start to turn again back on the upswing, as there's plenty of cheap countries to travel in out there
Please employ people LMBF, we need more with this mentality instead of the majority who want people to walk into a job with all of the skills, provide no training or upskilling, then replace them with the same down the track when they leave due to no progression opportunities.
again, there are almost 1800 jobs on seek at the moment that appear to be NZ registered locations that are advertising for roles in Australia. Looking at the source data, it is impossible to know if these roles are scrubbed from the index as they are not a sign of improvement in NZ job opportunities implied by your man Rob Clark.
example: https://www.seek.co.nz/job/80786095?ref=search-standalone&type=standout…
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