North's online job ads rise by 20pc

Northland job availability has risen by 20pc

Job hunters in Northland have more choice as the number of employment opportunities in the region swell.

Trade Me data revealed a 21.1 per cent increase in the number of jobs listed on the site in Northland in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2014.

The average advertised pay rate on the site in Whangarei was $54,637 while in the Far North it was $55,919 and in Kaipara it was $56,744.

The number of jobs advertised in newspapers, online advertisements and other entities also increased 2 per cent in 2014 compared with 2013.

Direction Recruitment branch manager Paula Kalkhoven said the increase was noticeable.

"I can definitely say there has been an increase in positions and definitely an increase in new jobs," she said.

"We are getting a lot of people coming up from the big cities to Northland because, with the housing market, people are thinking 'well we can sell our house here for such and such then we can buy a cheaper one up North'.

"So more people are moving up and needing to find jobs so there are a lot of candidates.

"But we have got clients who are still looking for people to fill roles and jobs are available across the board, both blue and white collar," she said.

However, Ms Kalkhoven said salaries remained relatively low compared to Auckland salaries.

"I would say that salaries in Northland are lower but it really all depends on the company, their budget and what they have to spend.

"Salaries here are less than what salaries would be in the Auckland region but then again there are some that are quite fair salaries here, particularly in the professional services like lawyers and accountants. They would get almost on par with what they would get down in Auckland," she said.

Nationally, there was an 8.5 per cent increase in jobs listed on TradeMe in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the previous year. Average pay also increased 3.5 per cent on 2014, while the average number of applications per listing declined by 3.1 per cent.

Trade Me Jobs head Peter Osborne said the start of the year had been promising but there had been a "definite slowdown" over the past 10 days of the quarter - most likely caused by the end of the financial year, Easter looming and a dose of "Black Cap fever".

The largest growth in job numbers was recorded in the construction and architecture fields - up 33.9 per cent on a year ago.

Trade Me recorded the largest growth of job listings in the Bay of Plenty with a 26.8 per cent increase in jobs available in the first quarter of 2015.