A rise in the number of online job advertisements in August helped offset a trending decline in newspaper ads, according to figures out today.

The ANZ New Zealand job advertisement series, which covered all newspaper and internet ads, rose 0.9 per cent in August, following a 0.7 per cent rise in July.

Internet job advertisements increased 1.5 per cent lift but newspaper listings fell 2.6 per cent, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The number of jobs advertised in newspapers had "continued to trend gently down" since mid-2009, ANZ said.

Internet ads had bounced back about halfway since the recession-related plummet three years ago but this was partly because online ads had captured an increasing market share versus newspapers.

ANZ's composite total, which weighted newspaper ads more heavily to give a better indicator for the unemployment rate, fell 0.5 per cent from July.

Job ad numbers suggested the labour market recovery since the recession had been "relatively tepid", ANZ said.

On a regional basis, Canterbury was seeing the strongest continued growth, while the Auckland job market appeared flat.

Canterbury ads rose 3.1 per cent and Auckland's total job ads fell 1.7 per cent in August.

Wellington ads rose by 4.6 per cent but the city's overall trend was flat.

Newspaper ads in Waikato, Hawke's Bay and Otago all saw consecutive increases, but Manawatu fell for the second month.

- nzherald.co.nz