Job placements less buoyant in South Island

The upper North Island is showing stronger employment resilience than any other part of the country, recruitment company Tradestaff says.

Tradestaff managing director Kevin Eder said demand for temporary staff was an indicator of economic activity.

The company had seen the number of placements in the South Island drop by 20 per cent more than the North Island during the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The North Island’s ‘‘golden triangle’’ of Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga showed the strongest demand for workers, but he warned that could change once current construction jobs were completed.

‘‘Auckland is still quite busy due to the large projects that are under way there, as well as the long-term infrastructure jobs, some of which are in their early stages,’’ Eder said.

Christchurch had slowed the most out of the major centres, Eder said.

New Zealand’s official unemployment data is published once every three months, with the last publication in March showing a rate of just 4.2 per cent.

Economists expect that to spike to more than 9 per cent later this year. The Treasury’s latest Covid-19 economic update shows that on May 29, the number of Jobseeker Support benefit recipients had reached 189,500.

That equated to about 6.3 per cent of the estimated working-age population, though not every unemployed person qualified for the benefit.

Trade Me was showing 4189 job listings in Auckland, compared with 1556 in Canterbury, implying a higher level of advertised jobs per person in the Auckland region.

The impact on Canterbury was partly the result of Covid-19’s effect on the tourism industry, Eder believed.

‘‘Pre-Covid, there was lots of optimism around the convention centre and cruise ships, but that enthusiasm has mostly died with the big drop in the tourism sector,’’ he said.

‘‘Also, local construction companies all report that not much is happening in the private and commercial space.’’

Eder said that the central North Island remained buoyant through lockdown, mainly driven by the quantity of private investment in construction and manufacturing, but he urged the Government to move quickly to ensure more projects began soon.

And demand for labour from forestry companies had returned.

‘‘The timber industry has come back strong and evidence of timber coming and going from

‘‘The timber industry has come back strong.’’ Kevin Eder Tradestaff managing director

the Port of Tauranga would suggest they expect it to stay that way, but unfortunately tourism in the likes of Rotorua has hurt,’’ Eder said.

While Queenstown had been badly hit by the loss of tourism, Eder believed its future might not be as dire as some had predicted, with the ski season approaching.

‘‘There have been lots of building consents processed through lockdown and while three hotel builds are currently deferred, others are still under way.

‘‘Many tourists to Queenstown are Kiwis, so demand will be there and the recent long weekend was extremely busy.’’

Eder said the group of workers hit hardest by job losses were lower-skilled workers.

Westpac economist Satish Ranchhod said it was encouraging that the rate of job losses had slowed since lockdown was lifted.

‘‘The pace of job losses has slowed to less than 1000 a week, from 6000 a week in lockdown.’’

But more job losses were expected. ASB senior economist Mike Smith expected unemployment to move about 9 per cent in the September quarter.