Huge skills shortage
More job listings — but vacancies difficult to fill
In my experience, what’s happening is that it’s really, really hard to find staff at the
moment. Kellie Hamlett, Talent ID Rotorua director
Growing numbers of job advertisements are a sign of “massive” shortages across all sectors, a recruitment agency says, with jobs increasingly difficult to fill. Despite thousands of people being on the Job Seeker benefit, bosses are reluctant to take them on, with reasons ranging from immigration to job security.
This comes off the back of SEEK New Zealand’s latest Quarterly Employment Report data which showed job ads were up by 12 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the Bay of Plenty.
This includes October, November, and December.
This was up 5 per cent on the same time in 2019, but it is below the national growth of 19 per cent over the same time period.
The top industries advertised on SEEK in the Bay of Plenty are trades and services; healthcare and medical; manufacturing, transport, and logistics; retail and consumer products; and construction.
Talent ID Rotorua director Kellie Hamlett says the high number of job ads is a reflection of jobs being more difficult to fill, across all sectors.
“More adverts don’t equate to more placements. In my experience, what’s happening is that it’s really, really hard to find staff at the moment.”
Hamlett says people need to advertise more and job ads are being put up multiple times or kept open for longer because roles are taking longer than usual to fill.
This is true for the whole country, she says, not just for the region.
“We might have a job that’s open for two or three weeks and not get enough candidates or the right candidate, and we have to re-advertise.”
“It’s incredibly hard. We’re going through massive skill shortages .. . It’s not sectorspecific any more.”
She believes this is a result of immigration, people being on the benefit, and people not moving from their jobs if they have job security.
“Even though New Zealand is a really good economic environment to be in right now, there’s still Covid overseas, and it’s still looming over us.”
Hamlett says there are “plenty of jobs out there” and she believes the candidate market will become more fluid in February.
Despite the difficult-to-fill jobs, there were a total of 2903 work-ready people on the Job Seeker benefit in Tauranga in November and 989 in the Western Bay of Plenty.
These are the latest figures from the Ministry of Social Development.
While this was down slightly on the two previous months, it was 1456 more in Tauranga than November 2019, and 477 more in the Western Bay.
Similarly, in Rotorua, there were 3908 in the most recent data, which was up from 2671 a year before.
Across the region, 20,280 people were on this benefit in November, 5849 more than the same time one year earlier.
Staffroom director Jill Cachemaille says recruitment has continued to grow coming out of Covid-19, with the majority of their placements coming from new positions.
“The last six months have been record quarters for us,” she said.
She said they expected to see many job seekers looking for a new start this year, with the new year historically attracting a change period with people looking for new roles.
“We are already seeing those changes, with people wanting to put the ‘Covid year’ well and truly behind them.”
The already recruitment agency was getting “a lot” of inquiries
from job seekers at the moment, and they did not expect this to change soon.
Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley believed the economic bounce-back after last year’s year.
“Especially as the sugar rush from the Government’s fiscal stimulus during lockdown eases back,” he said.
Tauranga’s long-term population
lockdown
will
stabilise
this growth remains steady, he said, which meant more people will start new businesses which create more employment opportunities for locals.
“There is no doubt that the economy ended 2020 much stronger than most people, including myself, thought it would six months earlier. The world is experiencing successive lockdowns so most of us are fortunate, as long as we are not in an industry reliant on open borders.”
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chief executive Bryce Heard said tourism and hospitality remained flat, but other areas such as administration, accountancy, trades and health were actively seeking good employees.
“However, despite high unemployment, a shortage of good people ready and willing to take the new roles is causing concern among employers and agencies alike.”
He said the figures supported reports of employment demand heating up over the Christmas break, which was encouraging.
“One agency is reporting having to take on extra staff to cope with the post-christmas demand, so it is a pretty positive start to 2021,” he said.
There was also an indication that
confidence seemed higher, with some now seeking more permanent employees compared with the call for temporary and short-term contracts during recent months.
Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt said from what they’ve seen so far, they expected trades and professional services to dominate job ads for the next few months at least.
He said the data reflected the buoyancy of businesses that will likely be looking to expand this year.
SEEK New Zealand general manager Janet Faulding said it was “heartening” to see the end of 2020 finish on a positive note in many regions, including the Bay of Plenty.
“The sectors showing growth compared to the same time last year regionally are industrial roles, professional services, and the public sector.”
Consumer services were showing a slight decline of 6.5 per cent.