SEEK Employment Report - June
NOTE: This report includes SEEK’s seasonally adjusted data as well as trend data. Where not otherwise specified, the commentary, figures and tables in this report refer to the seasonally adjusted data. From next month, this report will refer only to the trend series data (not the seasonally adjusted data). See notes 2 and 3 at bottom for more information about this.
*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to May data.
National Insights:
Job ads dropped for a second month, falling 3% m/m and 1% on trend.
Ad volumes are now only 3% lower y/y.
Region Insights:
Three regions recorded a m/m rise in job ad volumes: Gisborne (16%), Marlborough (16%) and Southland (1%).
Ad volumes have grown y/y in eight regions: Wellington (4%), Otago (5%) and Canterbury (2%).
Industry Insights:
Job ads in Information & Communication Technology rose 6% m/m with increased demand for ICT Managers (42%) and Network & Systems Administrators (24%).
Despite a 7% decline m/m, job ads in Government & Defence have grown 51% y/y.
Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager, says:
"Job ad levels have remained broadly flat for the past twelve months. While the volume remains below pre-COVID levels, there are pockets of growth, which should be cause for some optimism.
"Regional activity is mixed, with Gisborne, Marlborough and Southland recording month-on-month growth in June, and year-on-year we're seeing positive momentum in eight regions including Wellington, Otago and Canterbury.
"Despite a monthly dip in June, demand within Government & Defence has jumped 51% year-on-year, and we're seeing a growing number of industries return to annual growth within the Professional and Consumer services sectors, indicating that hiring activity is returning on multiple fronts.”
National Trends
After a 2% fall in May, job ads fell for a second consecutive month, down 3% m/m. Ad volumes are now just 3% lower y/y.
Looking at the trend data, ad volumes have again slightly declined, dropping 1% in June.
After rising 1% the month prior, applications per job ad fell 2%, seasonally adjusted.
Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m (June 2024 to June 2025)
Figure 2: National SEEK job ad percentage change trend - June 2021 to June 2025. Index = 100 (2013 average)
Region Trends
Southland recorded a second consecutive month of ad volume growth, rising 1%. It was one of only three regions where job ads rose m/m, including Gisborne (16%) and Marlborough (16%).
All other regions recorded a fall in job ad volume in June, led by Auckland (-2%), Wellington (-4%) and Waikato (-4%). The monthly decline was spread out across metro and regional areas, with both falling 3% m/m in June.
A growing number of regions are now recording y/y job ad growth, the largest increases being Manawatu (8%), Otago (5%), Bay of Plenty (4%) and Wellington (4%).
Over the past quarter job ads have stabilised in Wellington and Canterbury, whereas they have declined in Auckland (-3%), Otago (-3%) and Waikato (-1%). Southland (7%), Northland (6%) and Manawatu (4%) are among the regions where job ads have risen q/q.
Candidate activity, measured by applications per job ad, continued to rise m/m in Otago (6%), Manawatu (3%) and Hawkes Bay (4%), among other regions.
Figure 3: SEEK job ad percentage growth/decline by region, comparing i) June 2025 to May 2025 (m/m) and ii) June 2025 to June 2024 (y/y).
Figure 4: National SEEK job ad change by major region - June 2021 to June 2025. Index = 100 (2013 average)
Industry Trends
Aside from Information & Communication Technology, all of the largest hiring industries declined m/m, including Healthcare & Medical (-8%), Administration & Office Support (-3%) and Trades & Services (-3%).
Information & Communication Technology continued its pattern of fluctuation, up 6% m/m after dropping 15% the month prior and a 9% rise the month before that. In June, the increase was partly driven by increased demand for ICT Managers (42%) and Network & Systems Administrators (24%).
Call Centre & Customer Service (4%), Human Resources & Recruitment (4%) and Banking & Financial Services (3%) were among the smaller industries with job ads growing m/m.
Despite a 7% decline m/m, job ads in Government & Defence have grown 51% y/y. A rising number of industries are now recording y/y job ad growth, including Real Estate & Property (24%), Legal (18%) and Construction (6%).
Figure 5: Industries recording job ad growth comparing June 2025 to June 2024 (y/y).
Figure 6: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (June 2025 vs May 2025) – Ordered by job ad volume
ENDS
The data for this report can be downloaded here.
Banner image photo by cottonbro studio.
About the SEEK NZ Employment Report
The SEEK Employment Report is New Zealand’s leading employment index and provides a comprehensive overview of the New Zealand Employment Marketplace. The report includes the SEEK Employment Index (SEI) which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications.
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) Seasonally Adjusted figures remove regular calendar-related patterns from the data (e.g. Christmas holiday period). The seasonal adjustment is applied by a statistical model widely used by official statisticians. This helps show month-to-month changes without seasonal distortions.
(3) Trend figures go a step further by applying a weighted moving average to the seasonal adjusted figures (using a 13-term Henderson moving average) to smooth out short term fluctuations and noise. The trend numbers help identify the longer-term direction by filtering out both seasonal effects and short-term volatility.
(4) Caution is recommended when interpreting month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks. trend estimates during the COVID period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks.
(5) 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 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.