IT roles lead good year for jobseekers
It looks set to be a promising year for jobseekers, with the employment market in good health heading into the new year.
According to Trade Me Jobs, which analysed more than 65,000 job vacancies from October to December on its platform, the number of new job listings in the country increased by 16.4 per cent compared with the same time last year.
Head of Trade Me Jobs Jeremy Wade said there were ‘‘outstanding signs’’ for the Kiwi job market this year, with all but four categories experiencing a lift in new listings versus one year ago.
Those four categories with fewer listings were architecture, which had the largest decrease in new job listings at 21.6 per cent, banking, engineering and sales.
‘‘We don’t see this kind of consistent nationwide growth often, so it’s really encouraging for the 2017 job market as well as the economy,’’ Wade said.
Applications per listing fell 14 per cent in the last quarter of 2016 due to talent shortages. Wade said employers could still find great people if they promoted themselves in listings and showed jobseekers they offered development and culture, not just pay.
The average salary was down 0.4 per cent but Wade said this was expected to rise as demand for candidates increased.
Information technology had the highest paying jobs, with the top five dominated by IT careers.
The highest paid job was IT architect, at an average annual salary of $142,028. The lowest paid was housekeeper, at an average annual pay of $37,056.
Data from Seek showed that outside IT there was a strong demand for frontline service roles, including social workers, police and corrections officers and early childhood teachers. Demand for social workers increased 74 per cent in 2016 when compared with 2015.
Seek New Zealand general manager Janet Faulding said this was unsurprising: ‘‘With our increased population due to natural birth rates and migration, this puts increased pressure on social services.’’
New job listings on Seek for the end of 2016 were up 9.3 per cent compared with a year ago. This was driven by IT jobs.
According to recruitment company Hays, drivers of jobs growth in 2017 will include the construction industry and services sector, especially healthcare, social assistance and financial services.
Hays managing director Jason Walker said one of the ways employers could try to close the skills gap was to train up candidates already in the organisation. Another was to encourage apprenticeships. –Fairfax NZ