SEEK NZ Employment Report February

• After a notable rise in January, job ads dropped 2% in February. 

• This marks the most stable quarter in some time, with no change q/q. 

• Four regions recorded job ad growth m/m; Canterbury (3%), Bay of Plenty (1%), Southland (2%) and West Coast (6%). 

• Falling demand in Auckland (-2%) and Otago (-7%) drove the national decline in ad volume in February.  

• All of the large hiring industriesrecorded a decline, or no change in ad volume in February.

• A 15% drop in demand for Call Centre & Customer Service workers leads the m/m decline among the industries. 

“After a notable rise in January worker demand readjusted in February and fell 2%. 

“The month-on-month data can be a little bit noisy, and we are seeing some bounce among industries. For example, in the Call Centre & Customer Service industry, demand dropped 17% after jumping 35% in January – in this climate it is better to take a longer-term view of the numbers. 

“After two years of steady and significant decline in job ad volumes, the past eight months have been broadly flat. While we may not be out of the woods yet, the days of significant, broad-based drops in worker demand should be behind us.

“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.”

After rising 4% m/m in January, job ads declined 2% in February, and have recorded no change q/q. 

Since July last year, ads have remained relatively stable, aside from some noise month-to-month. This has been the most prolonged period of relative stability since pre-COVID. 

Ad volumes declined across metro and regional areas, but to a larger extent in the regions, down 2.5% m/m, compared to 1.5% in the urban centres.

Applications per job ad jumped 5% m/m in January*, a new peak for application levels. In a month where job ads also rose significantly, this is evidence of significant candidate interest as workers head into the new year. 

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

Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m (February 2024 to February 2025) 

Table 1: National and regional job ad growth/decline comparing February 2025 to: i) January 2025 (m/m) and ii) February 2024 (y/y)

Most regions recorded a m/m decline in February. The largest decline m/m was in Tasman (-9%), followed by Otago (-7%) and Marlborough (-7%). 

Despite the 7% drop in demand in February, ad volumes in Otago remain elevated q/q due to significant rises in December and January.  

Four regions bucked the declining monthly trend in February, led by West Coast (6%), Canterbury (3%), Southland (2%) and Bay of Plenty (1%). 

Applications per job ad rose again in the largest regions of Auckland (6%), Canterbury (4%), Wellington (2%) and Waikato (1%), among others.

Figure 2: National SEEK job ad percentage change by major region - February 2021 to February 2025. 

Figure 3: National SEEK job ad percentage change by region (February 2025 vs January 2025)

Demand stalled in the largest hiring industries in February, but it was a 15% decline in ad volumes in Call Centre & Customer Service roles that led the overall decline. 

Trades & Services and Manufacturing Transport & Logistics, the two largest industries, declined 4% m/m and were also major contributors to the fall in ad volumes in February. For Manufacturing Transport & Logistics, which has seen growing demand m/m since November, ad volumes remain 7% higher q/q.  

Taking a broader quarterly view, infrastructure and service-related roles are driving job ad growth for the country, while Professional Services have recorded next to no change for the past six months and the Public Sector has declined 7%. 

Applications per job ad increased 18% m/m for Hospitality & Tourism roles, 15% for Engineering and Community Services & Development roles and 11% for Accounting roles, among others. 

Figure 5: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (February 2025 vs January 2025) – Ordered by job ad volume

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 MART PRODUCTION