NZ employer hiring confidence declines slightly for Q1 2012

MANPOWERGROUP MEDIA RELEASE

New Zealand employer hiring confidence declines slightly for Q1 2012: ManpowerGroup

Survey of over 650 New Zealand employers shows significant drops in hiring confidence across Finance, Insurance & Real Estate, Manufacturing and Mining & Construction industry sectors

New Zealand – New Zealand employers have come back down to earth after the hype of the Rugby World Cup, as hiring intentions soften for the first quarter of 2012, according to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

Once adjusted for seasonal variations, the country’s Net Employment Outlook has decreased by three percentage points quarter-over-quarter and is on par with the outlook for this time last year, at +18%.*

Managing Director of ManpowerGroup Australia and New Zealand, Lincoln Crawley, said the fluctuations in the New Zealand employment market look set to continue in 2012.

“Employers in New Zealand are holding out for good news. They want to grow, but there isn’t enough confidence in the market for them to make a decided move,” said Mr Crawley.

“The drop in hiring intentions is partly a correction in the market after the hype of World Cup fever, which inflated optimism for the last quarter of 2011, and can also be attributed to the renewed threat of a double dip recession, as market woes in Europe continue to weigh on employer confidence.” added Mr. Crawley.

Some New Zealand industry sectors are feeling the brunt of renewed global market uncertainty more than others. Employers in Manufacturing report a significant drop in hiring intentions, down 20 percentage points from Quarter 4 2011 to +14%.

Meanwhile, Mining & Construction sector employers continue to scale back hiring plans, with the Outlook dropping 21 percentage points to +9%. In Finance, Insurance & Real Estate, employers report negative hiring intention for the first time since mid-2009, with a Net Employment Outlook down 18 percentage points from Q4 2011 to -3%.

“Manufacturers in New Zealand have been at the whim of a fluctuating New Zealand dollar, with reports that the unexpectedly high kiwi dollar has cost exporters over $6 billion in the past two years. This is clearly taking its toll on hiring expectations,” said Mr. Crawley.

“In a similar vein, employers in Finance, Insurance & Real Estate are feeling the effects of global market turmoil. Hiring and growth simply can’t take place in such unstable conditions,” Added Mr. Crawley, “One of the biggest risks employers face is losing top talent overseas if they determine that the New Zealand employment market is simply too unstable to bring new talent on board.

“However, while we’ve seen fluctuations in the New Zealand employment market over the past year, it is important to remember that the rest of the world has been experiencing even more market turbulence. New Zealand still has one of the most stable propositions for workers in the world. And we should be making the most of that,” said Mr. Crawley.

Mr. Crawley renewed his call for a national taskforce to be set up to address the outflow of workers from New Zealand, with government, industry, immigration and education representatives working together.

“New Zealand needs a holistic, national workforce plan that takes a long term view of the skills we have, the skills we need and where the gaps are. Training up our current workforce and using strategic, targeted global talent solutions will play a role in creating a sustainable national workforce that can lead us into the future,” he said.

ENDS

*The Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers expecting to see a decrease in employment at their location in the next quarter.
About Manpower New Zealand
ManpowerGroup, the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, has been helping clients and candidates win in New Zealand since 1996. With eight branches in three cities across the nation, Manpower New Zealand provides unique value to clients and candidates through recruitment & assessment, training & development, career management, outsourcing and workforce solutions.
This is the Human Age, where access to talent has replaced access to capital as the key competitive differentiator. Manpower New Zealand creates powerful connections between organisations and the talent they need to enhance their competitiveness and unleash their workforce potential. By creating these powerful connections, we help everybody achieve more than they imagined, and power the world of work.
Follow Manpower New Zealand on Twitter http://twitter.com/manpowernz
About ManpowerGroup
ManpowerGroup™ (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, creates and delivers high-impact solutions that enable our clients to achieve their business goals and enhance their competitiveness. With over 60 years of experience, our $22 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age. These solutions cover an entire range of talent-driven needs from recruitment and assessment, training and development, and career management, to outsourcing and workforce consulting. ManpowerGroup maintains the world’s largest and industry-leading network of nearly 3,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories, generating a dynamic mix of an unmatched global footprint with valuable insight and local expertise to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, across all industry sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises, local, multinational and global companies. By connecting our deep understanding of human potential to the ambitions of clients, ManpowerGroup helps the organizations and individuals we serve achieve more than they imagined – because their success leads to our success. And by creating these powerful connections, we create power that drives organizations forward, accelerates personal success and builds more sustainable communities. We help power the world of work. The ManpowerGroup suite of solutions is offered through ManpowerGroup™ Solutions, Manpower®, Manpower Professional™ and Right Management®. Learn more about how the ManpowerGroup can help you win in the Human Age at www.manpowergroup.com.

In January 2011, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ManpowerGroup announced the world has entered the Human Age, where talent has replaced capital as the key competitive differentiator. Learn more about this new age at www.manpowergroup.com/humanage

Follow ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres on Twitter: twitter.com/manpowerceo.

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