The short three-day lockdown in Auckland had a marked impact on the job market after an otherwise strong start to 2021.
A newly released report by employment site Seek revealed a dip in advertised jobs in Auckland in February.
Seek spokeswoman Janet Faulding said the 2 per cent drop after a strong January was most likely a dip in confidence after the short and sharp lockdown.
"February's Covid-19 community outbreak in Auckland and the resulting move into Alert Level 3 in the region pressed pause on some employers' hiring intentions, but overall, the road to recovery remains strong," Faulding said.
"Despite Auckland experiencing a 3 per cent decline month-on-month in job ad listings in the month of February, the recruitment boom that typically kicks off the new year led to a small decrease of 0.3 per cent nationally when compared to January 2021."
Despite the slight decline in Auckland other areas experienced strong ad growth, including 3 per cent in Wellington and 2 per cent in Canterbury.
"While New Zealand remains on high-alert for Covid and we continue to experience short periods of regional lockdown, our national recovery appears to be on track as we bridge the gap to pre-Covid levels," Faulding said.
Industries with the highest job ad growth were retail and consumer products at 13 per cent, construction at 7 per cent and Trades and Services at 5 per cent.
The Retail & Consumer Products industry, part of the Consumer Services sector, showed one of the biggest month-on-month increases from January 2021.
But despite the 10 per cent month-on-month growth, the sector is still lagging behind the other sectors showing a 12 per cent year-on-year decline.
The building and construction industry showed the most growth.
"Construction and Trades & Services continued its trend as one of the most in-demand sectors nationally, while jobs within the Retail & Consumer Products industries seem to be bouncing back with increased demand for workers," Faulding said.
The three industries with the greatest number of jobs on seek.co.nz right now is Trades & Services, Information & Communications Technology and Manufacturing and Transport & Logistics.
Jobs are available for these roles:
● Trades & Services with roles for labourers, automotive trades, building trades, technicians, carpentry & cabinet making, electricians and hair & beauty services.
● Information & Communication Technology with roles for developers/programmers, business/systems analysts, programme & project management, software engineering and help desk & IT support being in demand.
● Manufacturing Transport & Logistics includes roles for warehousing storage & distribution, machine operators, assembly & process work, and road transport.
● Construction including roles for forepersons, machinery operators, project managers and surveyors.