Employment market creeps up slowly

Employment market creeps up slowly

The New Zealand employment market has continued its slow and steady improvement in 2010, according to an analysis of 32,000 jobs listed on Trade Me Jobs in the three months from July to September.

The number of jobs listed was up 4% on the April-June quarter, and up 34% on the same time last year when the employment market was starting to emerge from the recessionary doldrums.

The average pay figure for the quarter was $63,945, essentially unchanged from the same period last year when it was $64,156. Wellington comfortably held onto the mantle of highest average wage ($78,969), with Auckland ($72,916) still in second place but falling further behind.

IT and marketing & communications lead the way

Peter Ashby, the head of Trade Me Jobs, said there was particularly good news for job-seekers with expertise in the IT and marcomms sectors.

Advertised vacancies in the IT sector were up 23% on last quarter, and up a whopping 70% on the same period in 2009. “We’ve seen strong demand for infrastructure architects, functional consultants and developers. This is the crunchy end of IT and is being driven by companies getting the confidence to build new stuff after a period of hibernation and cost-saving during the recession.”

Marcomms was up 13% compared to last quarter, and up 58% on the same period last year. “Businesses are looking to address the potential risks around their brand and reputation by staffing up here – this is one area that looks to be bouncing back after it was hit hard when belt-tightening was rife last year.”

Mr Ashby said employers were still receiving high numbers of applications for most roles. “Competition amongst job seekers is still at near record high and has only started to ease over the past month. Competition in the retail sector is particularly fierce with advertised jobs declining over the past quarter, causing applications per job to increase significantly. However, with Christmas on the horizon, there’s likely to be an injection of activity in this sector.”

South Auckland & Southland the stars

Manukau (up 18%), Southland (up 18%) and Christchurch (up 9%) were the stellar regions for growth in listings, compared to the previous quarter.

In Manukau, we’ve seen sustained growth in manufacturing, with advertised vacancies up 24% on the previous quarter and up 77% on the previous year. In Southland, there was significant growth in farming, engineering and transport & logistics.

Christchurch experienced solid growth in listings in July, but the job market softened in August. After a sharp drop-off in listings in the week after the September 4 earthquake, the market had recovered well.

“The Department of Labour recently noted that repair activity in the Canterbury region was set to support growth in 2011 and 2012. We’re expecting to see continued demand for construction staff and other related roles increase and provide a silver lining for the employment market in the region.”

The future?

Mr Ashby said he was upbeat about the jobs market when looking in his crystal ball. “The economy has grown for five consecutive quarters since the recession and the labour market has followed a similar track. While there’s lingering uncertainty in the NZ and global economy, we’re hopeful that tax changes will aid consumer confidence and further support business optimism and employers’ subsequent hiring intentions.”

ENDS

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