NZ Labour market remains challenging as job ads fall – Seek

Hospitality and tourism jobs bucked the national trend, rising 8% in October. Photo / 123RF

Hiring activity fell for the third consecutive month as the labour market remained challenging in October, according to Seek data.

Seek’s Employment Report showed job ad volumes fell 1% in October when compared with September.

Job ad volumes were 3% lower quarter on quarter and are now down 26% year on year.

“The labour market remains challenging as ad volumes continue to decline and the unemployment rate is still climbing,” said Seek NZ country manager Rob Clark.

“While trending downward, the recent declines in job ads have been smaller compared to the preceding 12 months.”

Adding to the tight labour market was rising applications per job, which was up 1% in September (a lag month) when compared with August.

“After breaking trend in August and dropping 2%, applications per job ad rose again in September and are still extremely elevated compared to pre-Covid averages,” Seek’s report said.

Applications per job ad have risen year on year in all industries except farming, animals and conservation.

Roles in retail and consumer products have attracted the most interest on a yearly basis, up 108%. This was followed by communication services and development (+96%).

Meanwhile, hospitality and tourism job ad volumes rose 8% in October compared with the previous month and have been up 37% since June.

Demand for Government and defence workers, which has been on the rise since August, rose another 15% in October.

Banking and financial services (18%) and community services and development (7%) were among the other industries with notable growth.

Leading the decliners in job ad volumes were education and training (-9%) and healthcare and medical (-6%).

Regionally, Otago (5%), Wellington (3%) and Waikato (2%) were the largest regions to record job ad rises.

October was only the second month job ad volumes rose in Wellington.

“Some regions, including Wellington and Waikato, saw job ads rise in October, which is positive given the many months where the larger regions declined,” Clark said.

Leading the national decline in job ad volumes were Auckland (-2%) and Canterbury (-4%).

New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in the September quarter, up from 4.6%, according to Stats NZ.