SEEK NZ Employment Report - December

*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to November data.

Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager says:

 “Job ads declined slightly month-on-month following a small rise in November. 

“Overall, the trend in 2024 was one of decline, with ads down 22% compared to December 2023.

“Some industries ended the year with more opportunities, including Banking & Financial Services and Insurance & Superannuation, thanks to growth spurts at the end of the year. 

“Hiring and applications do tend to pick up in the early months of a new year, as hirers and candidates start thinking about the future – so, January and February will be ones to watch.”

After rising in November, job ads declined 2% in December and are down 22% y/y. The cities drove the overall decline, with metro regions falling 3% while the rest of the country recorded no change m/m. 

With only slight variations m/m over the latter part of the year, the overall trend shows a decline of just 1% since June. 

Applications per job ad fell for only the second time in 2024, down 2% m/m, but were 32% higher y/y. 

After rising in November, Canterbury (-5%), Auckland (-4%) and Wellington (-3%) recorded a decline in ad volumes in December. Conversely, Waikato and Otago, which both recorded falling ad volumes in November, rose 2% and 5% respectively m/m. 

Of the larger regions, Otago has been impacted the least by job ad decline in 2024, falling just 8%, compared to 25% in Auckland and 23% in Wellington and Canterbury respectively. After some volatility at the start of the year, job ad volumes in Taranaki have not changed y/y. 

The nation’s capital attracted the greatest rise in candidate interest in 2024, with applications per job ad up 46% y/y, followed by 42% in Southland and 39% in Manawatu.

While the majority of industries recorded a decline in job ads in December, there was rising demand among the largest hirers: Trades & Services (3%), Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (5%) and Information & Communication Technology (6%). 

Healthcare & Medical roles recorded a 6% decline, and are now 15% lower q/q, while Retail & Consumer Products roles fell 13% q/q. 

Most industries have slowed their hiring since December 2023, with the few exceptions including Banking & Financial Services (29%), Mining, Resources & Energy (12%) and Insurance & Superannuation (12%), among others. 

The industries that attracted the largest rise in applications per job ad y/y were Advertising, Arts & Media (71%, a relatively small industry), Retail & Consumer Products (64%), Administration & Office Support (61%) and Construction (59%). 

The data for this report can be downloaded here. 

ABOUT THE SEEK NZ EMPLOYMENT REPORT

The SEEK Employment Report provides a comprehensive overview of the New Zealand employment marketplace. The report includes the SEEK New Job Ad Index, which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications. SEEK’s total job ad volume (not disclosed in this report) includes duplicated job advertisements and refreshed job ads. As a result, the SEEK New Job Ad Index does not always match the movement in SEEK’s total job ad volume.

NOTES

(1) The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including: a) seasonal adjustments applied to the SEI; b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI; and c) the exclusion of Company Listings (included under Company Profiles) from the SEI

(2) The Covid-19 pandemic led to a high level of volatility in labour market data between April 2020 and March 2022. As a result, caution is recommended when interpreting trend estimates during this period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks

(3) The applications per ad index contains a series break at Jan 2016 when the calculation of this series changed from using gross variables (inclusive of all SEEK job listings) to net variables (removing duplicate job listings). This change has a negligible impact on recent data points, but caution is recommended when interpreting data immediately following the series break, and particularly in 2016 where growth rates have not been adjusted for the series break.

DISCLAIMER

The Data should be viewed and regarded as standalone information and should not be aggregated with any other information whether such information has been previously provided by SEEK Limited, ("SEEK"). The Data is given in summary form and whilst care has been taken in its preparation, SEEK makes no representations whatsoever about its completeness or accuracy. SEEK expressly bears no responsibility or liability for any reliance placed by you on the Data, or from the use of the Data by you.

IMAGE CREDIT: Photo by Nicola Barts.