Confidence is up in New Zealand’s biggest city as Auckland posts a 20% increase in jobs listed on seek.co.nz, compared to the same time last year. The latest data from the SEEK New Job Ad Index has revealed two consecutive months of growth across New Zealand in August and September with the most significant gains in the City of Sails.
“Auckland plays home to one third of the country’s population and one third of our businesses, making it the most influential city with the greatest impact on employment. Substantial growth in this region is great news for our economy as a whole,” says Janet Faulding, General Manager of SEEK New Zealand.
“The recent findings of the Auckland Economic Quarterly report published by the Auckland Council revealed an increase in Auckland based jobs for the June quarter and our data shows that this growth has continued through August and September – great news for candidates in the region.”
In line with the report from Auckland Council, the SEEK New Job Ad Index also indicates that robust activity in the Construction industry is one of the city’s biggest growth drivers, with roles on SEEK up a substantial 43% from the same time last year and up 19% in September from August 2014. This is unsurprising following applications for new residential building consents hitting a new seven-year high last month, as shown by Statistics New Zealand’s latest dwelling consent data released in late September.
“The growth in building consent applications is positively impacting the construction sector nationwide, but this is particularly evident in Auckland which was the busiest region for consents with 656 applications lodged in August alone,” says Ms Faulding.
“Outside of construction, notable growth is also evident in Auckland with Hospitality and Tourism roles and Manufacturing, Transport and Logistics roles also bolstering September’s growth, up 29% and 14% respectively.”
On a regional basis, Canterbury experienced new job ad growth of 8.6% from August. However, new job performance dipped in the Capital with jobs down 3.4%.
In September job ad growth outstripped application growth meaning that the job market has swung in favour of candidates this month. This was demonstrated by the SEEK Employment Index (SEI), which measures the ratio of new job ads placed with SEEK to the number of applications received for those jobs, rising 1.6%.
“There’s currently more than 18,000 jobs listed on SEEK New Zealand and, while Auckland holds the lion’s share of the jobs, they’re not the only opportunity hot spot. Opportunities also abound for those in the Bay of Plenty, with jobs up 26% from last year, and Otago where jobs increased 23%. If you’re still ticking off your New Year’s resolutions and a career change is on the list, now is an excellent time to jump online and take a look,” Ms Faulding concludes.
