Kiwi employment market shows solid growth

Friday, 8 July 2011

Kiwi employment market shows solid growth

The New Zealand employment market remains strong, with listings up 27% on the same period last year, according to an analysis of over 39,000 jobs listed on Trade Me Jobs between April and June.

“The pendulum is definitely swinging in favour of the job seeker again with more jobs, less competition amongst applicants and pay packets up more than 3.5% on the same period last year,” said Peter Ashby, head of Trade Me Jobs.

In the regions

All the main centres have enjoyed year-on-year growth of over 20%, with Canterbury up a whopping 65% on the same period last year.

According to Mr Ashby: “Jobs at the pointy end of the recovery effort have showed strong growth, with trades & services listings more than doubling, and construction & architecture up four-fold. What’s really encouraging is that we’re seeing growth in other sectors like IT which is up 70% on a year ago.”

Both ends of the country showed stellar growth, with Northland growing by 38%, and Southland up 61% compared to the same quarter last year.

“Much of Northland’s growth can be attributed to healthcare and large infrastructure projects,” Mr Ashby said. “Down in Southland higher commodity prices across drystock and dairy seem to be rippling through to the broader economy.”

IT sector cranks up

The IT sector continues to grow at an impressive rate and 6,300 roles in this category were advertised on Trade Me Jobs in the quarter, 60% higher than a year ago. Driving this growth were networking and systems roles (up 121%), helpdesk roles (up 112%) and test analysts (up 110%).

“While many sectors showed great relative growth, the bulk of the increase was driven by the demand for developers. Overall, developer listings now account for a quarter of all the IT listings on Trade Me Jobs,” Mr Ashby said.

Listing numbers for banking, finance and insurance roles have also increased, up 53% compared to a year ago. “It’s no surprise the recent events in Canterbury have contributed to an increased demand for employees for insurance related roles,” Mr Ashby said. “There’s also been good growth in banking and finance roles within Auckland and Hamilton in the past three months.”

Looking ahead

“We’re hopeful the recent CERA announcements and optimistic business sentiment will start to erode some of the post-quake uncertainty and flow through to continued growth in employment,” said Mr Ashby.

“The impact of the Rugby World Cup will also spur a short-term increase in activity as hospitality and tourism businesses staff up for the influx of domestic and international visitors.”

Mr Ashby said continued solid growth in the New Zealand market could dent the exodus to Australia. “While wages are higher across the Tasman, jobs listings are down significantly on a year ago over there and this may help us hold on to some of those people considering leaving New Zealand.”

Overall, he said the outlook looked “pretty rosy” for job hunters. “We expect unemployment to drop and demand to increase for roles where it’s proving harder to attract candidates like IT specialists, environmental & building services engineers and senior marketing & communications managers. This will mean employers will be forced to offer higher wages to keep their best and brightest.”

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