Green shoots in NZ job market but losses still ahead, says Trade Me

Wednesday, 8 July 2020

There are more job ads than a year ago for some sectors but the worst effects of Covid-19 on New Zealand’s job market are yet to come, Trade Me says.

The number of new job listings on Trade Me in June was down 17.5 per cent from June 2019, after a 72 per cent decline in April when the coronavirus level 4 lockdown kept most of the country at home.

However, job listings in the hard hit hospitality and tourism sector were up 9 per cent from June 2019. There were also big jumps in job ads for agriculture, forestry and fishing, (up 37 per cent), and in science and technology (up 29 per cent).

Many hospitality and tourism businesses would have cut staff numbers and dropped hiring plans during lockdown to reduce costs, but were now open for business again.

Job listings in the hospitality and tourism sector were up 9 per cent compared with June 2019.

* Covid-19 casts long shadow over business confidence

* Uncertain times for Canterbury employers as wage subsidy goes

“There’s no denying that the nationwide lockdown shook New Zealand’s job market to its core, but we are already seeing a number of encouraging signs that it’s recovering faster and better than we predicted,” said Jeremy Wade, head of Trade Me Jobs.

“The return to normality after lockdown led to a jump in listing numbers, however, this may not be sustainable in the long run.

“We expect to see the job market at its worst in September and October, when the Government’s wage subsidy is due to end and businesses will be on their own.

The tourism-dependent Auckland region saw its job market hit hard by the loss of overseas visitors.

“The election is another curveball that will not help business confidence and therefore the desire to hire,” he said.

The highest paid job advertised in the three months ended June 30 was an IT project management position, offering $132,388, and IT remained the highest paying industry overall.

On the down side, the average pay in construction and roading fell 10 per cent, and fell 3 per cent in architecture.

Overall wages held steady, with the average salary up 1 per cent to $62,785. Wellington was the highest paying district, where jobs paid an average of $74,301, followed by Auckland ($71,346).

“With redundancies announced across the country and 25,000 New Zealanders returning from overseas, the demand and the competition for many roles is fierce,” Ward said.

One of the most popular jobs in the quarter was a work from home data entry role, which received over 5000 views and 853 applications.

Some sectors appeared to be taking a cautious approach to hiring, with job vacancies down 55 per cent in customer service in June; down 50 per cent in architecture; down 59 per cent in marketing-media & communications; and down 42 per cent in sales, compared with a year earlier.

The tourism-dependent Auckland region saw its job market hit hard by the loss of overseas visitors, and the Wellington region also took a hit, Wade said.

New Auckland job listings were down 55 per cent for the quarter, and in Wellington there was a 49 per cent drop.

For the month, however, some regions showed a recovery in listings with a 4 per cent rise in Hawke’s Bay, a 10 per cent lift in Northland, a 15 per cent rise in Taranaki, and an 8 per cent increase in listings in West Coast.

There was high demand for jobs in Canterbury, but a significant decline in job ads, which meant the region was likely to see higher rates of unemployment in the near future, Wade said.

One thing that might help was increased investment in infrastructure projects, aimed at keeping unemployment rates down.

“On July 1, the Government announced a number of shovel-ready projects that are predicted to create thousands of jobs around the country. The economic impact of these projects will vary between regions but we expect to see job listings spike in related sectors in the coming months,” he said.