SEEK NZ Employment Report - November

Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager says

“Any increase in job ad volume is positive news at this stage, though this is only the second time job ads have risen this year, and only by 1%.

“While demand for workers in most industries has declined throughout the year there are some that have bucked the trend, notably Banking & Financial Services where ad volumes have boomed over the past two months.

“There were nominal month-on-month rises in Wellington, Canterbury and Auckland which solidifies a period of relative stability for these regions over the past five months, after over a year of broad decline.”

National Trends

Job ad volumes rose for the first time in four months, and only the second time this year, up 1% in November.

The rise was predominantly in the major cities, with metro regions rising 0.6% m/m, compared to a 0.4% decline outside the cities.

Ad volumes are now 21% lower y/y, the slowest rate of decline in 18 months.

Applications per job ad increased in all regions aside from Southland, leading to a 3% rise nationally in October.

Region Trends

Rising demand in the three most populous regions drove the national increase in job ads in November; Wellington and Canterbury both rose 3%, while Auckland rose 1%.

In all three of these regions, ad volumes followed a declining trend for the first half of the year and appear to have stabilised over recent months.

Marlborough, which recorded a 13% decline in job ads in October, corrected in November, rising 12%.
The regions recording a decline m/m were Bay of Plenty (-5%), Northland (-5%), Waikato (-4%) and Otago (-2%).

All regions have recorded rising levels of applications per job ad y/y, led by Wellington (65%), Hawkes Bay (60%) and Gisborne (60%).

Industry Trends

There was notable growth in the Industrial and Construction sectors m/m, with rising demand for Mining, Resources & Energy (15%), Construction (13%) and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics workers (5%).

Last month’s rise in Construction ad volumes marks the largest rise for the industry in almost two years.

The larger industries within the Professional and Consumer Services sectors recorded declines in jobs ads, notably Healthcare & Medical (-7%), Hospitality & Tourism (-5%), Retail & Consumer Products (-5%) and Information & Communication Technology (-5%).

One exception is Government & Defence, where ad volumes have risen significantly in the latter half of the year (up 55% since June) after falling dramatically the previous six months.

In the case of Banking & Financial Services, where demand fell dramatically toward the end of 2023, industry growth has predominantly occurred during the past two months, with job ads rising 31% since September.

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