Revealed: Where NZ ranks among jobseekers

New Zealand remains an alluring place for jobseekers. Photo / 123RF

New Zealand remains an alluring place for jobseekers when it comes to attracting, retaining and developing staff after retaining its spot in the top 15 for the second straight year.

The annual World Talent Ranking 2017 report, compiled by the IMD World Competitiveness Centre, ranked New Zealand 15th out of 63 countries surveyed.

Despite dropping one spot on last year's report, New Zealand still ranked higher than Australia, who came in at 19th.

European nations continued their dominance with Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium holding their top three positions from last year, with 11 of the top 15 located in Europe.

The World Talent Ranking is based on a country's performance in three main categories — investment and development, appeal and readiness — from a survey of more than 6000 business executives in 63 countries.

The categories assess how countries perform when it comes to education, apprenticeships, workplace training, language skills, cost of living, remuneration, tax rates — and quality of life.

The report found that New Zealand fared among the best in the world when it came to Readiness - the availability of skills and competencies in the talent pool - placing 8th.

However, New Zealand's lowest position came under the Investment & Development category, where we ranked 28th overall. Within this category New Zealand ranked outside the top 40 for pupil-teacher ratio in both primary and secondary education, apprenticeships, and 39th for employee training.

Lithuania was rated the best country for women in work, with a 50/50 gender split. New Zealand came in at 13th, at 47.38 per cent.

Norway had the best quality of life, New Zealand rated 12th.

The full report can be read here.

The breakdown

Talent ranking top 20:

1. Switzerland
2. Denmark
3. Belgium
4. Austria
5. Finland
6. Netherlands
7. Norway
8. Germany
9. Sweden
10. Luxembourg
11. Canada
12. Hong Kong
13. Singapore
14. Ireland
15. New Zealand
16. United States
17. Cyprus
18. Iceland
19. Australia
20. Israel

New Zealand's full breakdown

Overall: 15th (Investment & Development 28th, Appeal 14th, Readiness 8th).