Pandemic work helps boost improving jobs outlook

Friday, 29 January 2021

Healthcare was the fastest growing industry for jobs in December, up nearly 9000 jobs on last year.

The labour market has bounced back from a dip in November, bringing optimism for the coming year.

According to Statistics NZ, there were 2.3 million filled jobs in December, up 1.7 per cent or over 37,000 jobs on the previous month.

Displaced workers who have lost their jobs during Covid-19 are being offered free study to retrain for jobs in the agriculture industry.

On an annual basis, there were just under 13,000 more jobs than December last year, up 0.6 per cent, but business insights manager Sue Chapman said the jobs market had lost a lot of steam since Covid-19.

“Before the Covid-19 pandemic, we usually experienced annual increases of between 2 and 4 per cent.”

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Kiwis spent up strongly in cafes and restaurants in the last quarter, providing some support for the beleagured tourism sector.

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However, Infometrics economist Brad Olsen had a more optimistic take on the figures, saying it set the stage for a more upbeat labour market in 2021.

''The regional and industry-level differences make the uneven hit to the New Zealand clear to see, but the resilience in filled jobs so far helps support our more optimistic view for the economy.''

A third of the new jobs were created in the Wellington region. Jobs were up 2 per cent annually in December, just over 5,000 jobs more than a year earlier.

Erma Aquino picks raspberries in the rain at Butlers Fruit Farm. Some seasonal jobs took a while to get going as domestic demand became clearer.

Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Hawke’s Bay also saw consistent gains, while some of the weaker regions in November, such as Auckland, turned around their declines.

Otago and Canterbury, the hardest hit regions, were still showing annual declines, but the gap continued to narrow.

While some industries were struggling, others were less affected or even expanding to tackle the challenges of the pandemic.

Healthcare saw the biggest increase, gaining nearly 8,816 jobs, a jump of 3.7 per cent year on year.

Construction followed, up 4.9 per cent or 8,563 jobs, and public sector roles rose 5.5 per cent (7,630 jobs), reflecting in part a jump in pandemic-related work.

The biggest fall was in accommodation and food, down 5 per cent (7,772 jobs) as the lack of foreign visitors due to Covid-19 bit hard.

But Kiwibank economist Mary Jo Vergara noted that local spending at restaurants and cafes in the December quarter was up around 70 per cent –‘’suggesting that Kiwis have been really helping to keep that critical 5 per cent of our economy that is reliant on foreign tourists to keep going’’.

In other industries, administration and support jobs fell 5.2 per cent (5,340 positions), and transport, arts and recreation services, and retail trade remained hard hit.

Some seasonal tourism jobs appeared to take longer than normal to get going – ''likely as businesses adjusted their staff as domestic tourism demand became clearer over the holidays,'' Olsen said.

He was cautiously optimistic that tourism-related job losses were bottoming out, but said they had the potential to soften again through to March, as the impact of the closed borders grew.

Economist Michael Gordon of Westpac said the jobs figures were surprisingly good.

‘However, it’s not a surprise in the sense that other labour market indicators have also been pointing to a rapid recovery from the Covid-19 lockdown. For example, job advertisements are now also up slightly on a year ago.

‘’Today’s figures support our view that the unemployment rate is nearing its peak, at a much lower level than was feared in the early stages of the pandemic.'’