NZ job growth beats the Aussies
Job ads rise in New Zealand, drop in Australia. Engineering, accounting and IT employees in hot demand.
Job ads rise in New Zealand, drop in Australia. Engineering, accounting and IT employees in hot demand.
New Zealand’s new job growth has been stronger than that in Australia over the last three months, according to Australasia’s biggest jobs website.
The Seek New Job Ad Index released today revealed that since April, new job ads have risen by 1.8% in New Zealand but dipped by 0.7% in Australia.
“While the Australian labour market recovery was far stronger than in New Zealand after the global financial crisis, it is encouraging to see that New Zealand has forged ahead over the last three months in terms of new job ad growth”, said Janet Faulding, general manager of Seek New Zealand.
Locally, the growth in new job ads last month was driven by Canterbury and the regions.
While Auckland and Wellington experienced dips in new job ad numbers of 2% and 4.6% respectively, Canterbury’s new jobs grew by 2% and South Island locations outside of Canterbury grew by 3.8%.
Other North Island locations, excluding Auckland and Wellington, also posted an increase of 3.4%.
“It’s pleasing to see job growth is being driven by the regions and is not just limited to the big cities. New job ads are now 16.3% higher than the same time last year and confidence is continuing to improve around the country,” said Mrs Faulding.
The Seek Employment Index (SEI), which measures the number of new job ads placed on seek.co.nz and compares this to applications lodged for these positions, showed a slight decline in June, falling by 0.4%.
This decline was driven by a comparatively bigger decline in the number of new jobs advertised than applications.
Mrs Faulding said despite the slight decline in the SEEK Employment Index, there are still over 16,000 jobs currently advertised on Seek.
“There are numerous opportunities in all industries and regions and engineers, accountants, IT consultants and recruitment agency positions are proving rather hard to fill at the moment.”
June’s top five most sought after employees:
1. Engineering – Civil/Structural Engineering
2. Accounting – Business Services and Corporate Advisory
3. Information and Communication Technology – Consultants
4. Human Resources & Recruitment – Recruitment Agency
5. Healthcare and Medical – Psychology, Counselling and Social Work