Range of industries calling for staff

included above-market pay rates, security, flexibility, a four-day work week, working from home, upskilling, training and development, job location, PPE gear, tool allowance and lucrative counter-offers to keep candidates. In the temporary job market, long-term temp roles are easier to fill, and short-term assignments are more challenging. However, with talk of a recession on the horizon, conditions may become similar to the GFC, where employers tightened their belts and shifted from employing permanent staff to using temporary staff, Tidy said.

Personnel Resources/temp Resources Rotorua manager Angelique Scott said an admin role which used to attract 150 applications had dropped to 20-30 if “we are lucky”.

“I think with the borders opening up it will help a little. I do think the market will take a little while to turn around and get back to the ‘new normal’, whatever that may be. We just have to go with the flow.”

She said places like Scion were offering a nine-day fortnight while others had working from home, birthday days off and “our favourite is providing cheese, crackers and chocolate biscuits”.

At the moment it had eight permanent financial roles and was recruiting for a funeral director, while payroll specialists were hard to find and even a “receptionist role can be hard to fill these days”.

Seek NZ country manager Rob Clark said at the moment a registered nurse role in Katikati came with a $4000 sign-on bonus.

“There is a significant shortage of nurses so companies are having to be more creative in ways to attract people. Employers are trying to attract staff and stand out and the beauty of a sign-on bonus is it’s a oneoff and not ongoing.”

He said job levels were high and employment levels were low and that was still the case despite talk of a recession. “It is an environment which is different to what we typically see.”

Job listings had increased across the board and there were nearly 2000 job vacancies for the Bay of Plenty on its website. Data from its Employment Dashboard for July show national job ads were up 9 per cent year on year. In the Bay of Plenty, they dropped 3 per cent last month but were still up 20 per cent for the year to July.