Job ads decline 29% year-on-year, according to Seek NZ

Monday, 21 October 2024

The official unemployment rate is based on a survey by Stats NZ. To count, people must have actively looked for work in the previous four weeks.

With thousands of people expected to be out of a job by the end of the year, the latest Seek NZ report could be unwelcome news for job hunters.

According to the latest Seek NZ Employment Report, job advertisements on the site had dropped 29% in the year to September.

It comes as Government figures showed the number of people who receive the Jobseeker benefit payment had increased by about 12,300 people, or 11.8%, from September 2023 to September 2024.

A number of companies had also begun rounds of redundancies last week including NZ Post and Kiwirail, as unemployment was expected to rise to 5.4% in June 2025.

The report found after 15 months of relatively steady decline, and a jump in July, job ad volumes also fell slightly month-on-month, dropping 0.5% in September and 5% quarter-on-quarter.

Applications per job ad also fell for the first time in a year, declining 2% month-on-month in August.

Seek NZ country manager Rob Clark said despite job ads dropping slightly in September, the declines of the last two months are smaller than those seen earlier this year.

“While Auckland, Wellington and Bay of Plenty recorded small declines, Canterbury bucked the trend, rising 6% month-on-month.”

As smaller and less populous regions, Gisborne, which grew 14% month-on-month and West Coast, where there was a 12% decline, were prone to greater fluctuation than the larger areas, with less impact on the national volume.

Over the past quarter, the Bay of Plenty, Northland and West Coast all recorded recorded a rise in ad volumes up 1%, 3% and 12% respectively.

Applications per job ad rose month-on-month in Waikato (2%), Taranaki (13%), Tasman (5%) and Gisborne (9%).

In Wellington where application per job ad had been rising for 12 months, the longest of all regions, applications per ad remained steady with no change.

When it came to industries, most of the large industries recorded only marginal growth or decline in September, or no change at all.

This was true of trades and services, up 1%, manufacturing, transport and logistics, with no change and retail and consumer products down 1%.

Information and communication technology also recorded a rare 3% rise in job ads.

The more notable declines in September were in healthcare and medical, down 5%, engineering, down 11% and construction, down 8%, but these were offset by growth in some of the professional services industries including insurance and superannuation, up 27%, real estate and property, up 17% and legal, up 11%.