Employment Reports

SEEK Employment Report - May 2024

June 24, 2024

NATIONAL INSIGHTS:

Job ads fell 5% in May and are 30% lower year-on-year (y/y).
After rising for seven consecutive months, applications per job ad remained steady in April*.

REGION INSIGHTS:

Taranaki (3%) and West Coast (39%) were the only regions to record a monthly rise in job ads.
Compared to May 2023, job ads have declined the most in Marlborough (-46%) and Wellington (-42%).

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS:

The Construction sector led the monthly decline in jobs ads, with Engineering roles dropping 12% month-on-month (m/m).
Call Centre & Customer Service (2%) and Sales (1%) were among the few industries where ad volumes increased in May.

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

Of the May data, Rob Clark, Country Manager SEEK NZ, says:

“It is an incredibly tough labour market at the moment, and SEEK data reflects that, with declining ad volumes in most regions and in all sectors.

“Construction jobs fell the most in May, and have recorded the greatest decline this quarter, with jobs in Engineering and Construction some of the industries most impacted.

“We know there have been major cuts to the public sector and in May this was mostly felt outside the major metro regions, with a 7% decline in regional public sector roles month-on-month.

“Applications per job ad, which measures competition among candidates for vacant roles, did not grow or decline in April and remain exceptionally high. This is particularly true for roles in Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics, Construction and Trades & Services.”

NATIONAL INSIGHTS

Job ads fell by 5% in May, making it the fourth consecutive month of job ad decline. Ad volumes remain 30% lower y/y, and are 25% lower compared to May 2019.

Job ads declined most outside of the urban centres (-6% m/m) compared to the cities (-4%).

Applications per job ad remained steady in April and are now 69% higher than the same time last year.

Figure 1: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m May 2023 to May 2024

Table 1: National and regional job ad growth/decline comparing May 2024 to: i) April 2024 (m/m), ii) May 2023 (y/y) and iii) May 2019

REGION INSIGHTS

Most regions recorded a decline in job ads in May. The largest declines in the larger regions include Hawkes Bay (-9%), Waikato (-7%) and Bay of Plenty (-6%).

In May the smaller regions declined to a greater extent than the metro cities, due mainly to the decline in public sector jobs, which fell 7% m/m.

Taranaki (3%) and West Coast (39%) were the only regions where job ads rose m/m, and the latter appears to be a resettling after a decline of 36% the month prior. In Manawatu there was no change m/m.

When comparing year-on-year, all regions have recorded job ad decline, the greatest being Marlborough (-46%) and Wellington (-42%).

Applications per job ad increased in Auckland (2%) and Wellington (4%) but declined in Canterbury (-4%) and Otago (-9%).

Figure 2: Major region job ad trends: May 2020 to May 2024

Figure 3: National SEEK job ad percentage change by region (May 2024 vs April 2024)

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Job ads fell in most industries m/m, but a slowdown in hiring in the Construction sector, including roles within the Engineering (-12%) and Construction industries (-8%) led the decline.

Notably, after the announcement in March of a restructure to postal services at NZ Post, ad volumes for these roles fell 18% in May.

Some job ads rose m/m, including Sales (1%), Call Centre & Customer Service (2%) and Legal (3%).

Applications per job ad rose to small degrees in most industries but jumped substantially in Hospitality & Tourism (27%). A 9% rise for applications per job ad in Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics roles brought levels to record highs, some 43% higher than levels recorded in 2019.

Table 2: Job ad decline by sector comparing, i) May to April (m/m), ii) the quarter to May v. the previous quarter (q/q)

Figure 4: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (May 2024 vs April 2024) – Ordered by job ad volume

Ends

Banner photo by Mikael Blomkvist.

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. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately.