SEEK NZ Employment Report - October

• Job ads fell for a third consecutive month, down 1%. 

• After falling in August, applications per job ad increased again in September, rising 1%.

• Declines in job ad volumes in Auckland (-2%) and Canterbury (-4%) led the national decline. 

• Otago (5%), Wellington (3%) and Waikato (2%) were the largest regions to record job ad rises. 

• Government & Defence job ads rose for a third month, up 15%. 

• Applications per job ad has risen y/y in all industries aside from Farming, Animals & Conservation.

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

Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager says:

"The labour market remains challenging as ad volumes continue to decline and the unemployment rate is still climbing.

“While trending downward, the recent declines in job ads have been smaller compared to the preceding 12 months.

“Some regions, including Wellington and Waikato saw job ads rise in October, which is positive given the many months where the larger regions declined.”

After rising in July, job ads have now fallen for three consecutive months, dropping 1% in October. 

When considering the overall trend in job ad volume, the past four months have remained relatively flat, particularly in comparison to the two years preceding it. 

After breaking trend in August and dropping 2%, applications per job ad rose again in September, up 1%, and are still extremely elevated compared to pre-COVID averages. 

After rising 6% in September ads declined 4% in Canterbury in October. Auckland also declined 2% and together these two regions drove down national ad volumes for the month. 

For only the second time this year, job ads increased in Wellington, up 3% in October. West Coast (8%), Otago (5%), Manawatu (4%), Waikato (2%) also recorded a rise in ad volumes m/m. 

Applications per job ad rose m/m in Southland (7%), Hawkes Bay (6%) and Auckland (4%), among other regions.  

Hospitality & Tourism job ads have risen 37% since June, and rose 8% in October, with rising demand for Housekeepers (27% m/m), Wait Staff (10% m/m) and Chefs/ Cooks (9% m/m) among other roles. 

Demand for Government & Defence workers has been on the rise since August, and rose another 15%, in October. Banking & Financial Services (18%) and Community Services & Development (7%) were among the other industries with notable growth in demand m/m.  

Among the industries to decline m/m were Education & Training (-9%) and Healthcare & Medical (-6%).

Taking a quarterly view, roles within Consumer Services have essentially not changed. This sector includes industries which have recorded increases q/q; Hospitality & Tourism (20%) and Real Estate & Property (7%), but also those that have decreased, including Administration & Office Support (-8% q/q) and Sales (-4% q/q).

Roles within the Industrial sector (-7%) and the Construction sector (-5%) have recorded the greatest decline q/q. Roles within the Public Sector have also not changed q/q. 

All industries aside from Farming, Animals & Conservation have recorded a rise in applications per job ad y/y. Those that have attracted the most interest have been Retail & Consumer Products (108%), Communication Services & Development (96%), Call Centre & Customer Service (87%) and Insurance & Superannuation (85%).

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 Ketut Subiyanto.