The $200k role in high demand

It's tough time for some jobseekers, but others have a wide range of roles to choose from.

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ

It might be a tough time to be a jobseeker for many New Zealanders - but there are still bright spots in some sectors, new Seek data shows.

The recruitment website has released data showing 13 roles had at least 14.5% year-on-year ad growth for the three months ended November last year.

General practitioners (GPs) had 46.4% more job ads to choose from last year than the year before, with an average salary of $205,329.

In February, there were more than 200 GP jobs advertised.

Healthcare and medical technologists were next, with 43.2% job growth and a salary of just over $100,000.

Auditors were third, and banking and financial analysts fourth.

Healthcare practice managers were also in high demand, with 37.1% more ads and an average salary of $87,487 and education centre managers up 37% with an average salary just under $100,000.

Seek country manager Rob Clark said it showed that even in a tougher environment generally, there were often pockets where there was still demand and not enough applicants to meet it.

“Because they’re high-skilled they’re relatively well paid. Over half are paying more than $100,000.”

Five of the roles were in the health sector.

“That’s fairly well-publicised in terms of some of the challenges we are facing there and some of the movement of talent outside New Zealand relative to the type of skills coming in.”

Some of the other roles were “usual suspects”, he said, such as data engineers.

“It’s just a generally high-demand kind of role.”

The demand for vets had lifted since Covid because people had more pets, he said.

“Early learning centres have seen some changes in the Family Boost initiative bringing more funding for those who would like to tap into early learning. We’ve seen higher demand for centre managers in that regard.”

Clark said he would expect demand for many of the roles to continue.

Health roles were generally not easy to fill, he said, and pharmacists and GPs were likely to remain sought-after.

“Some of these fields are in high demand in other attractive markets like Australia so New Zealand becomes a talent pool for some of those places if people are happy to move.”

He said macro trends such as an ageing population were also likely to keep pressure on.

-RNZ