Education, Government roles lead advertised salary growth

Advertised salaries on Seek rose 3.1% in November compared with a year ago. Photo / 123RF

Advertised wage growth continues to outpace inflation but is slowing, according to Seek’s Advertised Salary Index (ASI).

Advertised salaries on Seek rose 3.1% in November compared with a year ago.

Salaries increased 0.7% in the November quarter. The pace of growth increased from 0.6% for the August quarter but is down on the 1% growth in the November 2023 quarter.

“Although the rate of annual growth continued to slow, average advertised salaries continue to outpace the annual inflation rate. Additionally, we saw an increase in the rate of growth in the November quarter,” Seek NZ country manager Rob Clark said.

“Government and Government-related industries were among those that grew the fastest, with education and training, Government and healthcare and medical among those that outpaced inflation more than twice over.”

Inflation is currently sitting at 2.2%.

Education and training grew at the fastest pace year on year (6.3%) and was up 1% on the previous quarter.

Strong demand for education was supported by significant growth in international students, Seek said.

“Additionally, upcoming agreed increases in primary and secondary teacher salaries will have likely boosted advertised teacher salaries,” the report said.

There were robust increases in advertised salaries for insurance and superannuation (5.6%), engineering (5.5%), Government (5.3%), marketing and communications (5.2%) and healthcare and medical roles (5.2%).

On a quarterly basis, advertised salaries for Government roles grew at 0.2%.

Real estate and property was the only industry with negative year-on-year salary growth (-0.3%) but rose 0.6% for the quarter.

Advertised salaries in legal (-1.1%) and consulting and strategy (-0.1%) both recorded a decline in the November quarter.

Over the past quarter, advertised salaries grew fastest in the major metro regions.

Wellington led the way, with salaries increasing 1% in the November quarter, up from 0.5% in the quarter to August.

In Auckland, advertised salaries rose 0.8% in the quarter, up from 0.7% in the prior quarter. Canterbury has grown 0.8% in the past two quarters.

Annually, Wellington, Canterbury and ‘Rest of North Island’ (excluding Auckland) grew at 3.6%.

This was followed by Auckland, up 3.1%, and ‘Rest of South Island’ (excluding Canterbury), up 1.3%.

The report said advertised salary growth had slowed notably across the ‘Rest of the South Island’ having grown quickly in 2023.