SEEK NZ Advertised Salary Index - November

NATIONAL ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

• The SEEK Advertised Salary Index (ASI) rose by 0.7% in the quarter to November compared to the previous quarter.

• Despite dropping around two percentage points since November last year, the year-on-year (y/y) growth of 3.1% is still faster than inflation, which is slowing at a quicker rate than advertised salaries.

REGIONAL ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

• The major metro regions have experienced the fastest growth in average advertised salaries q/q.   

• Wellington led the rest of the country, growing at 1.0% quarter-on-quarter (q/q) and 3.6% y/y.

INDUSTRY ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

• With inflation at 2.2% most industries are still experiencing above-inflation advertised salary growth y/y, with Education & Training growing at the fastest pace (6.3%). 

SEEK Country Manager, Rob Clark says:

“Although the rate of annual growth continued to slow, average advertised salaries continue to outpace annual inflation. Additionally, we saw an increase in the rate of growth in the November quarter.

“Government and government-related industries were among those that grew the fastest, with Education & Training, Government and Healthcare & Medical among those that outpaced inflation more than twice over.”  

Advertised salaries were 0.7% higher q/q. The pace of growth increased from 0.6% for the quarter to August but is down on the 1.0% growth in the quarter to November 2023.

Annual growth of SEEK advertised salaries has slowed over two percentage points since its peak in November last year, now at 3.1% y/y. This remains faster than inflation, which was 2.2% in the year to September 2024 and above the RBNZ’s expectations for inflation over 2025 of 2.3%.

Over the past quarter advertised salaries grew fastest in the major metro regions. In Wellington average advertised salaries grew 1.0%, compared to 0.5% in the quarter to August. In Auckland they rose 0.8% up from 0.7% in the prior quarter and in Canterbury they have grown 0.8% for the past two quarters.

Annually, Wellington, Canterbury and the rest of the North Island (outside of Auckland) have grown at the same pace of 3.6% y/y. 

Having grown quickly in 2023, advertised salary growth has slowed notably across the rest of the South Island outside of Canterbury.

Most industries are still experiencing above-inflation advertised salary growth, with robust increases in Government and related industries such as Healthcare & Medical and Education & Training, bolstered by solid public sector wage growth across the year.     

The fastest growth in annual advertised salaries was in the Education & Training industry (6.3%), with strong demand in the sector supported by significant growth in international students. Additionally, upcoming agreed increases in primary and secondary teacher salaries will have likely boosted advertised teacher salaries. 

Over the past year advertised salaries within Real Estate & Property declined slightly (-0.3% y/y), as they did in the year to the previous quarter, although more recently they have grown by 0.6% q/q. Advertised salaries in Legal (-1.1%) and Consulting and Strategy (-0.1%) both recorded a decline in the November quarter.  

The data for this report and more information about how the SEEK ASI is put together can be found here.