Another record for job ads as applicants per job falls - Seek

Seek job ad numbers are now 30 per cent above where they were pre-Covid. Photo / 123RF

For the fifth month in a row, the Seek NZ Employment Report shows a record-breaking number of jobs advertised on seek.co.nz.

Seek's figures for July show job ads are now up 30 per cent when compared to July 2019 - prior to the arrival of the pandemic.

Job ads in July were up by 2 per cent from June (month-on-month) and up by 88 per cent from a year earlier July 2020.

Meanwhile applications per job ad have continued to fall - down 9 per cent from June - reaching a new low.

"The larger metropolitan areas of Auckland and Canterbury saw job ad volume growth of 2 per cent and 5 per cent respectively month-on-month," said Seek country manager Rob Clark.

"While key regional areas including Taranaki and Gisborne also saw some positive growth of 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively."

Some regions saw a drop month-on-month such as Southland and Otago, by 4 per cent and 7 per cent.

"Even though many areas saw a reduction in July it is important to note that all regions have more jobs than the same month in 2019, before the impacts of Covid," Clark said.

Southland now has 32 per cent more roles advertised and Otago has 29 per cent.

"Right now there are almost 10,000 jobs on seek.co.nz in the manufacturing, transport & logistics, information and communication technology, and trades and services sectors," Clark said.

BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert said the numbers indicated the labour market was seeing "far more than just a rebound".

"They were already riding very high in June – well clear of the pre-Covid peak that occurred around the middle of 2019."

The construction sector continued to be a big driver of growth but job market strength was evident through an increasing range of sectors.

The healthcare and medical sector stood out in July for itself in this regard, he said.

The recent regional pattern of strength has been maintained.

"As solid as the big centres were, it was the smaller regions where ads were the most ahead," Ebert said.

One "perceived blemish" was that job advertising in the South Island, excluding Canterbury, eased 4 per cent in July.

"However, with its level cruising 32 per cent above its pre-Covid peak, it was beating the national results on this basis."

The Seek figures had proved a very good pointer to New Zealand's official unemployment rate, Ebert said.

Unemployment dropped from 4.6 per cent in the March quarter to 4 per cent in the June quarter.

- ASX listed Seek is New Zealand's most visited job site. The Seek Jobs Report is based on its Seek New Job Ad Index, which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications.