Employers pay more for workers, says economist
Job numbers and earnings were up last month, showing businesses have been able to find workers at a price, an Infometrics economist says.
Filled jobs were up 0.6% in June from May, to 2.3 million, Stats NZ said on Thursday. It was the third month in a row that the number of filled jobs rose.
Service industries had the biggest monthly rise in filled jobs, up 0.7% or 11,452 jobs, along with goods producing industries, also up 0.7% or 2955.
Compared with a year earlier, the biggest rise in filled jobs was in professional, scientific and technical services, up 0.6% or 10,770 jobs.
Gross earnings for the month rose to $13.3 billion from $12.2b in June 2021.
‘‘With earnings going up, it’s clear that employers really want more workers and so they are paying more for it, and they’re willing to,’’ Infometrics economist Joel Glynn said.
Some businesses have been crying out for staff with the closure of borders because of Covid-19, and Covid-related sickness, while industries such as the construction and technology sectors had already been grappling with labour shortages before the pandemic.
Underlying job numbers were sitting above the previous peak in January 2022, and the number of extra roles that were filled in June was a surprise, he said.
‘‘Monthly underlying jobs growth of 0.6% is the strongest in a year, despite the tight labour market, and shows that businesses have been finding new workers, at a price.’’
The strength of the labour market was a silver lining in New Zealand’s outlook, he said.
The country is dealing with surging inflation above 7%, with rising costs and higher interest rates, and there are fears of a recession ahead.
Stats NZ releases official quarterly employment data next week. Westpac acting chief economist Michael Gordon expected the unemployment rate to fall to 3.1% for the June quarter, down from an already low 3.2% in the March quarter.
That would be the lowest since Stats NZ began the survey in 1986.
Stats NZ’s June data showed that 25 to 29-year-olds were the only age group to see a decline in filled jobs compared with June 2021, down 2.5%.
The fastest growth was for 15 to 19-year-olds, with a 16.9% jump, followed by 60 to 64-year-olds, up 4.4%.
In terms of regions, Tasman had the fastest annual rate of job growth, up 4.2%, followed by Waikato, up 3.4%, and Northland, 3.3%.
The Auckland region saw an extra 18,900 jobs filled, up 2.5% on June 2021, Canterbury was up 3.1% with an extra 9190 jobs filled, and Wellington was up 2.2% with 5522 more filled jobs.
Glynn said construction job numbers were still strong in June, but the annual rate of growth had slowed to 4.9%, well below the peak of 8.7% in November 2021.
‘‘Weaker job growth in the construction industry suggests it is close to maximum capacity and, with consistently high volumes of issued building consents in the last year, the ability of firms to complete projects in the pipeline without undue delay will be tested,’’ he said.
The number of enterprises on the Stats NZ business register rose 1.2%, or by 6555, to 574,185 from May to June.