Job ads jump despite Covid alert
Job advertising rebounded strongly last month, recovering to be higher than two years ago, according to Seek monthly figures.
There was a 10.6 per cent jump in job ads last month compared with February, the biggest rise since July 2020, and a huge increase compared with March 2020 when the country went into level 4 lockdown after the coronavirus pandemic hit.
‘‘The 55.3 per cent annual growth in March’s job advertising reflected a weakened base period, when Covid-induced shutdowns were starting to bite,’’ BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert said in a research note yesterday.
‘‘However, this is not to belittle the latest result. As perspective, March 2021 ads proved 5.8 per cent higher than they were back in March 2019 [in seasonally adjusted form].’’
Monthly growth had been shrinking to almost zero in February.
Job advertising rebounded despite six days of level 3 lockdown for Auckland, and level 2 for the rest of New Zealand, at the start of March.
‘‘This augurs well for April’s data by comparison, should this month carry through on level 1 status,’’ said Ebert.
Advertising for jobs in Auckland surged 13.3 per cent in March, beating the national monthly increase, although smaller regions were still rebounding better than the big centres, he said.
The regions of Bay of Plenty, West Coast and Otago led the way with 21 per cent rises.
Sport and recreation, hospitality and tourism, and retail and consumer products were the industries with the highest growth in job adverts.
‘‘Those related to government and property were arguably doing the best. Still, it will pay to keep an eye on travel-related sectors now that New Zealand will, on April 19, do what Australia did back in October and make its trans-Tasman border quarantine free,’’ said Ebert.
According to the latest figures released in February, there was a shock drop in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from 5.3 per cent to 4.9 per cent.
The report by Stats NZ confounded the most optimistic expectations of economists, who had been expecting a modest increase in the jobless number in the final three months of 2020.
There was a 10.6 per cent jump in job ads last month compared with February.