SEEK Employment Report - September
NOTE: The commentary, figures and tables in this report refer to trend series data. See notes at end for more information.
*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to August data.
National Insights:
Annual ad volumes continue to rise, up 6% y/y.
The number of New Zealand candidates applying for roles in Australia remains elevated compared to pre-COVID.
Region Insights:
Every region recorded monthly growth in September, aside from Manawatu (-1%).
In Canterbury, volumes have been rising since October 2024, and along with Otago, job ads are now 17% higher y/y.
Industry Insights:
At 5%, Banking & Financial Services recorded the fastest m/m growth in September.
The Construction sector has driven overall growth rising 6% q/q and 13% y/y.
Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager, says:
“While ad volumes are still low compared to historical averages, the past four months of growth demonstrates positive momentum in the market.
“The momentum was broad based, with almost every industry seeing increasing demand, but the Construction and Professional Services sectors in particular are where growth has been accelerating recently.
“Looking at annual trends, the South Island is outperforming the North, with all regions recording double-digit rises in ad volumes.
“On the candidate side, applications per job ad continue to rise, with regions including Manawatu, Auckland and Waikato attracting significant interest from candidates.”
National Trends
Job ads rose 1% in September, the fourth consecutive monthly increase, and the longest period of sustained growth in over three years. After increasing for the first time since November 2022, annual growth is now at 6%.
Growth was supported by notable gains in Auckland (1%) and Canterbury (2%) and by increased demand for Hospitality & Tourism (4%) and Construction (4%) workers, among other industries.
Candidate activity remains elevated, with applications per ad up 1% m/m and 10% y/y, indicating that there are many willing applicants for the opportunities available, even as worker demand improves.
Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m (September 2024 to September 2025)
Figure 2: National SEEK job ad and applications per job ad percentage change trend - September 2021 to September 2025.
Region Trends
Aside from Manawatu, where ad volumes dropped 1% m/m, every region recorded a rise in job ads in September, including Hawkes Bay (3%), Northland (3%) and Bay of Plenty (3%).
Auckland has recorded two consecutive months of 1% growth and annual job ad volumes are now just 1% down y/y, the closest margin since late 2022. It is one of only three regions where job ads remain lower y/y, alongside Taranaki (-7%) and Manawatu (-2%).
In general, the South Island is outperforming the North, particularly from an annual perspective, with solid ad volume growth across all regions.
In Canterbury, the trend is of incremental but steady monthly growth in demand, with job ads rising uninterrupted since October last year. Volume increases in Otago has been swifter but more volatile this year, with monthly rises at 3% the past two months.
Worker supply, as measured by applications per job ad, has grown significantly y/y in Manawatu (19%), followed by Auckland (17%) and Waikato (16%). In Otago, where job ads have risen 17% y/y the 12% rise in applications per job ad demonstrates persistent interest from workers in the region.
Figure 3: SEEK job ad percentage growth/decline by region, comparing i) September 2025 to August 2025 (m/m) and ii) September 2025 to September 2024 (y/y).
Figure 4: Applications per job ad by region – comparing August 2025 to August 2024 (y/y).
Figure 5: National SEEK job ad change over time by major region - September 2021 to September 2025
Industry Trends
Demand for Banking & Financial Services workers rose 5% m/m, the swiftest of all industries in September, and are up 10% q/q. Ad volumes are now at their highest level in two years, which is slightly below pre-COVID levels.
Job ad volumes for Construction workers have risen steadily for the past twelve months, up 4% m/m and 30% y/y, with particularly strong demand for Plant & Machinery Operators and Project Managers.
Notable growth was also recorded for Hospitality & Tourism (4%), and levels are significantly higher than they were prior to 2019.
Only two industries recorded a decline in ad volume m/m, Science & Technology (-1%) and Design & Architecture (-1%).
While all sectors are experiencing growth, the Construction sector, which includes the Construction, Trades & Services, Engineering and Design & Architecture industries, has recorded the strongest monthly, quarterly and annual job ad growth.
Applications per job ad jumped significantly m/m for Farming, Animals & Conservation (7%), Mining, Resources & Energy (5%) and Trades & Services roles (4%).
Table 1: Job ad growth by sector i) q/q and ii) y/y.
Figure 6: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (September 2025 vs August 2025) – Ordered by job ad volume.
ENDS
The data for this report can be downloaded here.
Banner image photo by Andrea Piacquadio.
About the SEEK 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.
To improve the SEI and continuously ensure its market accuracy, the SEEK Employment Report began reporting on trend estimates rather than seasonally adjusted estimates from August 2025. Trend estimates provide a more reliable guide to the underlying direction of the data and are more suitable than either the seasonally adjusted or original estimates for business decisions. The trend estimates focus on the longer-term underlying trend and are less susceptible to short term movements.
In addition, SEEK is planning to include aggregated ads into the SEI to better reflect the full range of ad sources on SEEK. Aggregated ads are re-posted to SEEK from other sources and are a small portion of SEEK's ANZ job volumes. Alongside this change, charts will be indexed to the average of 2016 as opposed to the average of 2013. These changes will be made in the coming months and will be highlighted when active.
Notes:
The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including a) the trend adjustments applied to the SEI; and b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI.
Caution is recommended when interpreting trend estimates during the COVID period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks.
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. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately.
About SEEK
SEEK operates market leading online employment marketplaces, helping people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and helping organisations succeed.
SEEK has a multinational presence that is focused on Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.