There has been a moderate growth of 1.5 per cent in job ads compared to the same period in 2018 according to the SEEK NZ Employment Report for the second quarter of 2019. Over the same time the average advertised salaries has increased by 3.2 per cent. Wellington is still leading the way with a significant increase in job ads (10.8 per cent) compared to Q2 2018.
“Nationally, we have seen a levelling off since Q1, but we are still seeing growth compared to last year,`” comments SEEK senior employment trends analyst, Leigh Broderick. “Growth has been varied across the country with Wellington continuing to see strong broad-based sector growth in the last quarter, particularly in the Information & Communication Technology sector, while Auckland and Canterbury have seen a decline in ad growth in Q2 when compared to the same period in 2018. Auckland’s ad growth has been impacted by a slowdown in manufacturing and front-line roles and Canterbury mainly impacted by construction related sectors.”
The levelling off in job ad growth this year at a national level accords with other signs that the labour market is slowing, explains BNZ’s Senior Markets Economist, Craig Ebert.
“The recent NZIER Quarterly Survey of Business Survey (QSBO) reported patchy hiring over the last few months, including an especially weak result for manufacturers,” Craig explains. “The other thing the QSBO shows is a good degree of resilience in business’ employment intentions. For all their trend moderation over the last couple of years these were, in fact, still above-average in the early-July edition of the survey.
“It will be interesting to see how New Zealand’s labour market pans out over the latter half of 2019, with SEEK job advertising helping early to illuminate the trends,” Craig continues. “Official wage data show firm-to-firmer rates of annual inflation. This is backed up by recent trends in SEEK’s average advertised salary series.”
The top six sectors showing growth by volume for Q2 are Information & Communication Technology (14.1 per cent), Healthcare & Medical (6.5 per cent), Community Services & Development (25.6 per cent), Marketing & Communications (13.5 per cent) Retail & Consumer Products (4.7 per cent) and Education & Training (9.9 per cent).
The nation’s average advertised salary is 3.2 per cent with Northland reporting the highest growth of 8.0 per cent and of the major territories, Auckland has the highest growth year on year at 4.1 per cent. By industry, Mining, Resources and Energy salaries continue to see the highest surge compared to Q2, 2018 (averaging an 8.7 per cent increase) with Community Services & Development also maintaining a notable increase compared to 2018 (averaging a 4.6 per cent increase).
