Big cities lead jump in job listings

Auckland City. Photo / NZ Herald

Job hunters in Auckland and Canterbury are more likely to be successful than their counterparts in other parts of New Zealand, employment figures indicate.

According to Seek, more than 26,000 job advertisements went up on the site last month, a 17.3 per cent jump in postings from last May.

Advertisements for positions in Auckland and Canterbury spearheaded the rise, with nearly 4 per cent more listings in both cities last month compared to 12 months earlier.

Janet Faulding, Seek New Zealand general manager, said while the two cities were leading the way in job advertisement growth, other parts of New Zealand were also beginning to see a lift in numbers.

"Wellington demonstrated job ad growth for the first time in 2014, with a 1.7 per cent increase in new job ads," she said. "The New Zealand economy is in a period of rapid growth and latest bank reports are pointing to over 50 per cent of businesses feeling optimistic about their prospects, which, reflecting on historical data, is very high."

Other figures showed workers in the building and farming industries continued to be in high-demand.

Demand for labour in construction jumped 46 per cent between last month and 12 months earlier, the year-on-year Seek figures show, and ads for farming jobs increased by a similar amount over the two months.

Listings for jobs in the trades and services were up 33 per cent, and design and architecture job advertisements increased by 26 per cent between last month and May 2013.