Vacancies surge as regional wages fall
Employers will have to pay more to encourage workers to fill surging vacancies in the regions, Trade Me Jobs head Jeremy Wade says.
Trade Me figures show the job market grew by more than 15 per cent since April last year, with the regions the most under pressure. In Gisborne, jobs advertised on the site were up by 40 per cent, by 37 per cent in Waikato and 32 per cent on the West Coast.
‘‘Some of these regions have pretty small job markets but these numbers are incredible,’’ Wade said.
‘‘The jump in new listings in the regions has been led by transport and logistics, manufacturing and operations and construction sectors.’’
Although more workers were needed in the regions, wages were down from the same time last year, with average pay almost 5 per cent lower in Gisborne, and almost 1 per cent lower in Waikato.
ANZ on Wednesday also recorded job growth in the regions, with all 11 regions experiencing stronger annual job vacancies than Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Otago and Waikato had seen the biggest growth in job advertisements, up 36 per cent. That was followed closely by Nelson, Tasman, Marlborough and Gisborne, according to ANZ.
Wade said with job advertisements continuing to grow, jobseekers could afford to look around for the highestpaying roles.
‘‘The job market is in great health and we’ve seen incredible jumps in the number of roles advertised but … wage growth has been surprisingly flat by comparison.’’
Manufacturing and operations job listings on Trade Me were up 35 per cent, while retail and property job listings were both up 31 per cent. The sector with the biggest fall in listings was banking, finance and insurance, which was down 21 per cent, Wade said.
ANZ estimated last month job vacancies for were at their highest point since 1994.
‘‘If that’s true, then a wage war is just around the corner and job hunters can expect to see a bigger wage packet dangled in front of them,’’ Wade said.
Auckland offered the highest average wage at $71,817 a year, surpassing Wellington with $67,592. ANZ also found Auckland was the strongest of the main centres, with job adverts 18 per cent higher than a year ago.
Technology was still the most lucrative career, with the top five salary spots taken out by IT roles. IT architects were number one again with an average salary of $144,563.
Both Wellington and Auckland had huge growth in new job listings, up 14 per cent and 15.9 per cent respectively.
The only region to fall compared with April last year was Canterbury, down 2 per cent, which was mainly due to a drop in the number of trade jobs available.
‘‘The year-on-year decrease is a reflection of the Canterbury job market recalibrating from its post-quake building boom,’’ Wade said.
‘‘Recent job listing volumes suggest the Canterbury job market looks to be stabilising and we don’t expect to see it declining for much longer.’’
ANZ’s monthly job listing tally also lifted 1.6 per cent in March and the total number of adverts was up 18 per cent on a year ago.
The ongoing high level of job adverts showed a strong labour market but the pace of annual job advert growth had appeared to have peaked, ANZ said.