Job advertisements fell 2% in February, according to employment marketplace SEEK, turning around January's 4% increase in job ad numbers.
On a yearly basis, SEEK's latest NZ employment report shows job ads were down 17% compared to February 2024.
SEEK Country Manager Rob Clark said after a notable rise in January, worker demand had “readjusted” and fallen in the month of February by 2%.
“The month-on-month data can be a little bit noisy, and we are seeing some bounce among industries,” he said.
“For job seekers, we know that the start of the year is a peak time to jump back into the job hunt and the data shows it did, with a 5% rise in applications per job ad, coinciding with a rise in ad volumes in January.”
SEEK’s report found ad volumes fell across both metro and regional areas during February, with metro areas experiencing a 1.5% decrease in job ads compared to a 2.5% fall for the regions.
Job ad falls in Auckland (down 2%) and Otago (down 7%) contributed the most to the national decline in job ads during February. Other large declines last month were Tasman (down 9%) and Marlborough (down 7%).
Just four regions reported a job ad increase from the previous month and those regions were West Coast (up 6%), Christchurch (up 3%), Southland (up 2%) and Bay of Plenty (up 1%).
SEEK’s employment report found while demand stalled in the largest hiring industries in February, it was a 15% tumble in call centre and customer service roles that was the biggest contributor to February’s job ad decline.
Trades, services manufacturing and transport logistics ,which make up the largest hiring industries, reported job ads falling by 4% in February.
Government, marketing and insurance and superannuation roles saw the biggest increases in job ads during February.
Applications per job, which SEEK records with a one month lag, rose 5% in January when compared with application levels in December 2024.
Regions with the highest number of applications per job were in the country’s biggest regions – Auckland (up 6%), Christchurch (up 4%) and Wellington (up 2%).
Advertised salaries on the up
According to SEEK’s latest New Zealand Advertised Salary Index, average advertised salaries rose 2.6% on an annual basis in the 12 months to February 2025.
On a quarterly basis, advertised salaries growth was 0.7% in February compared to November 2024.
Clark said while annual average advertised salary growth continues to slow, it still remains above inflation which is currently at 2.2%, within the Reserve Bank's target range of 1% to 3%.
“Despite having some of the more robust labour markets over 2024, advertised salary growth has slowed more notably in the more regional parts of the South Island,” he said.
Canterbury advertised salaries were up 0.8% in the February quarter, but across the South Island advertised salaries edged up only 0.1% from the previous quarter.
Over the course of 2024, the slow advertised salary growth outside of Canterbury contributed to the South Island’s advertised salary growth rising just 0.5% in the 12 months to February.
Advertised salaries grew the fastest in Auckland, up 0.9% from the previous quarter, higher than the rest of the North Island where advertised salaries were up 0.7%. Wellington advertised salaries were up 0.5% from November 2024.
“Slower advertised salary growth in some of the largest industries is dragging down the national average, with some smaller industries like Science & Technology growing much faster,” Clark said.
2 Comments
What happens to an economy when the largest and most significant investor and employer in that economy decides to cut back significantly?
Thousands of current and future government jobs are cut - that is thousands of middle class incomes removed from spending and saving money in the private sector over at least the next 3 to 6 years.
Billions of dollars in planned and existing in-flight projects from building social housing to port and hospital infrastructure was halted and it was halted very suddenly without any replacement spending. The construction industry took a sucker punch and contracted by 20% by the end of 2024 - shedding 11,000 jobs.
Recent corporate earnings reports for 2024 reflect the impact of that spending contraction - Fletchers and Spark in particular - both loosing big time - directly and indirectly from government withdrawal from the economy.
I expect there are still some large corporate restructurings to come in the first half of 2025 but NZ's polite executive leadership are struggling with when and how to break the news - first to their employees and then to Willis.
Rising unemployment - especially white collar unemployment - will have a much bigger political impact on the coalition than they've experienced so far.
If the May 2025 budget follows with more public sector layoffs and spending cuts .... current predictions of low growth for the NZ economy in 2025 might be optimistic.
The governments sales pitch to the private sector investment community is 'do as I say not as I do'.
Government investment sales pitch:
"Hey international investors - I'm currently100% focused on reducing tax revenues now and into the future and I can't do that if I have to invest in the economic prosperity and productivity of my country and great grand children.
Would you like to do that for me instead? What if I give you an above market rate of return? What about if you get to generate revenue from the users of the infrastructure for the next 50 years on top of that return?"
At some point Willis will discover her inner Keynesian and pull out some government spending from somewhere and somehow. Surely - she must know about Keynesian analysis and what that tells us about where the economy is heading?
The use of counter-cyclical fiscal policy - the only way out of recession according to historic economic data. Treasury? Anyone advising on the NZ economy?
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