Masterton workers among worst paid

Masterton's workers are among the lowest paid in the country, according to a new study from job searching website Trade Me Jobs.
A study of 48,000 jobs nationwide listed on the site in the second half of last year showed Masterton was the second worst location for pay, with an average pay of $42,246 - down from $48,143 in the first half of the year.
The lowest paid location was Selwyn and Mackenzie districts in Canterbury, with an average pay of $39,810, while the third worst was Porirua, where the average pay was $44,082.
Wellington City assumed the mantle as the best paid location, with an average pay of $72,471, but the Wellington region - which includes Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa - suffered from one of the sharpest declines in advertised vacancies, down 7.4 percent compared to the first half of 2009.
The results did not come as a shock to Jeff Workman, who chairs Masterton District Council's Community Development Task Group.
"It certainly doesn't surprise me. It's showing up in Statistics New Zealand that we have gor a large amount of beneficiaries in the town."
Masterton's small population and infrastructure were among the largest economic challenges for the district, he said.
He believed developing an inter-agency Wairarapa economic strategy was the best way to address the problem.
The region's three councils have already formed a joint group to look at economic development initiatives, and Wairarapa already had a blueprint prepared by defunct tourism group Go Wairarapa, he said.
The Trade Me Jobs study also showed that during the period the Western Bay of Plenty had the largest increase in job vacancies, that the labour market was easing and tightening the most in Upper Hutt and the West Coast respectively, and that Wanganui had the highest drop in job vacancies.
The five lowest paid jobs over the period were kitchen staff (average pay $31, 457), bar staff and baristas ($31,785), caregivers ($32, 576), waiting staff ($30,817) and hotel front desk and reception staff ($32,773).
Information technology jobs dominated the five highest paid occupations, which were doctors ($143,495), IT architects ($126,443), IT sales and pre-sales ($121,418), financial controllers ($115,472) and IT project managers ($114,352).
Jobs that had the largest decrease in vacancies were waste and water engineers, freight forwarders, engineering project managers, accounts receivable staff and engineering and building services, while the biggest increases were tellers and branch staff, beauticians, painters, business development managers and builders and carpenters.