Rotorua job market booming

Rotorua's growing economy has seen the job market "flooded", with new figures showing a 26 per cent increase in listings during the last quarter.

Figures released by Trade Me this week show a jump in job listings, but a slight decline in applications per listing, and a 3.4 per cent decline in the average pay advertised.

As of yesterday, there were 186 job listings on Trade Me, registered for Rotorua.

While the listing increase painted a positive picture, Trade Me said the figures also showed the gender divide to be "alive and well in the New Zealand employment market".

The percentage of applicants applying for jobs paying $100,000 and over rose significantly for men but dropped to 30 per cent for women, in the Bay of Plenty region.

Sixty-eight per cent of applicants for jobs between $80,000-$99,999 were men, while 32 per cent were women.

Trade Me did not have enough data to break the gender pay bands down to Rotorua.

Personnel and Temp Resources recruitment consultant Anne Long said the Rotorua job market was "definitely flooded".

"We've been flat tack, there's a high number of jobs and a high number of applications."

She said there appeared to be an increase in jobs available across a range of sectors.

"Anything from forestry to legal firms, there is high demand for people to fill accounts and legal secretary positions so if you have those skill sets, you're worth your weight in gold."

Ms Long said she was surprised by the statistics showing a decline in average pay.

"I haven't seen any evidence of that, it could just be the way the jobs are advertised on Trade Me," she suggested.

When asked about the gender pay gap evident in Bay of Plenty figures, Ms Long said she did not think the divide was as prevalent in Rotorua.

"We have had quite a few high-level accounting jobs recently and both genders were equally represented."

Chamber of Commerce chief executive Darrin Walsh said the increase in listings came as no surprise.

"I check the websites like Trade Me and Seek on a regular basis to see what is being advertised and I have seen an increase in listings - something that comes with a economy that's going ahead."

He said he did not know what could be driving the gender divide seen in applications for high-paying jobs.

"It may be the appeal of what's out there at the moment. The statistics could be different next quarter if more of the high-paying jobs were appealing to women - that's all I can think it would be."

Business Women Connect co-ordinator Kathy Hawker said while there was a good balance of men and women in high-paying roles, the trend of more women re-entering the workforce could skew the data.

"I don't think there's any stigma within Rotorua businesses around hiring women for high-paying positions, I just think businesses are really picky - your CV needs to be great, you need to have good interviewing skills and you need to have the skills required.

"We are seeing a lot of stay at home mums, grandparents raising grandchildren and people who have been on the benefit re-entering the workforce and obviously those people are going to need to upskill before they can apply for any higher-paying positions."

She said it was hard to pinpoint one factor contributing to the gender divide across the region.

"I haven't noticed a blatant gender divide in Rotorua but the statistics could depend on what jobs are available and what people are going for."