Essential staff get some fast wage growth

Grocery assistants and supermarket workers have experienced some of the fastest wage growth through the pandemic, new statistics from Seek show.

Its latest April update compares four months of advertised salaries, between November and February, with the same period over 2019/2020. It shows production workers in the manufacturing sector had the fastest advertised wage growth, with the average salary increasing 33% over two years to $47,600 a year.

Grocery assistants were second, up 30% to $47,323. Accounting roles were up 28%, to $106,789, labourers up 27% to just under $45,600 and checkout operators up 26% to $46,670. Over the same period, the minimum wage increased from $17.70 an hour, or $35,400 a year on a 40-hour week, to $21.20 or $41,891.

The number of jobs advertised was up 3% in April compared to March and 15% higher than a year earlier. The number of applications per job ad was up 5% month-on-month.

Seek’s country manager for New Zealand, Rob Clark, said businesses were ‘‘extremely stretched’’ for workers. The demand for workers was much higher than the supply of people looking for work, he said. ‘‘The job ad growth in our regional hubs was particularly notable in April, and in fact job ads outside the urban areas have risen 23% since this time last year, compared to those within our cities which have grown 14% year-onyear,’’ he said.

‘‘This is interesting when considering our candidate research which found 67% of employees would likely consider relocating to another region in NZ for work, compared to 30% who would consider relocating to Australia.

‘‘There is a lot of discussion over a mass exodus of Kiwis leaving the country in the search for better international options, yet these findings also suggest many may be looking for a tree change closer to home.’’

He said demand for goods and services had been elevated, so the need for staff in retail and productfacing roles was strong. ‘‘Remuneration is decided based on various industry and business factors, (the recent increase to the minimum wage is one such example), so while there is demand across the board, not all businesses are going to respond to hiring pressures simply by raising salaries, and certainly not to a uniform degree.

‘‘What is interesting is that many of the roles that saw the largest growth in salaries were those of the essential workers; production assistants, grocery workers, healthcare, that kept businesses ticking over the past two years. These roles were and continue to be vital and evergreen, and the rise in salaries is likely a reflection of businesses needing to retain and attract them.’’