Big drop in job adverts across the country and in all sectors
Job advertisements are drying up, with a 30% drop nationwide in the year ending April 23, with the provinces among the most impacted.
Job ads in Wellington, which is experiencing mass redundancies and job cuts in the government sector, have fallen 44% over the past 12 months, according to Seek NZ Employment Dashboard data.
The only region more affected than Wellington was the West Coast, with a 54% reduction.
Provincial areas Tasman (41%), Marlborough (37%), Taranaki (34%), Manawatū (33%), and Northland (29%) have also taken big hits year-on-year.
The employment pain has been less apparent in Southland (23%), Waikato (22%), Otago (17%), and Hawke’s Bay (16%).
Infometrics chief economist Brad Olsen said the country was in for a rough ride this winter. “Our expectation is that interest rates will continue to be high, reducing the amount of additional money in the economy, and won’t decline until the end of the year.”
Olsen said he expected unemployment to continue to rise and reach 5%.
With cuts being made to the government sector in Wellington, this also affected private businesses in the region, he said.
“Talking to people, they are downbeat. They have a triple hit – high interest rates across the country, working from home, there is not as much being spent in Wellington, and the public sector cuts all cast a shadow, but it is not down and out.”
Pullbacks by employers were occurring throughout the country, he said. With less spending, businesses were not requiring additional employees.
Seek’s report showed that all 10 employment sectors had fewer job ads in the 12-month period, led by information and technology, and hospitality and tourism, both down 40%.
Next came administration and office support (37%), manufacturing, transport and logistics (36%), retail, consumer production (34%), trades and services (29%), engineering (21%), accounting (20%). and healthcare, medical and sales (18%).
With high migration levels, Olsen said most of those coming to the country had jobs lined up before arrival.
“The number of visas issued has been declining through 2023 into 2024. Over time, as we see fewer jobs, we can expect to see softer levels of migration.“
Business Canterbury chief executive Leeann Watson said a recent quarterly survey of businesses in the region showed that 71% expected costs to again rise, and more than a third predicted rising input costs with such things as wages.
However, she said Canterbury had some positive trends, with business confidence higher than in any other part of the country. “We’ve had the highest internal migration for the second year running, both from overseas and from around the country.”
Southcanterburychamberofcommerce chief executive Wendy Smith said she was not surprised by the job advertisement statistics.
“The lower number of jobs being advertised in general reflects both an increase in available labour due to higher immigration, and hence roles being filled, and a softening of some markets with a slowing economy. This has led to caution for some businesses in rehiring staff.”
NZ Employment Dashboard data also showed that applications per job ad month-on-month had gone up 5%.
In April 2024, the number of job advertisements nationwide fell 4%.