A new report suggesting Wanganui salaries are on the rise is "encouraging" for professionals, a local business expert says.
National employment site Seek released its biannual salary report this week showing the average Manawatu salary jumped 8.6 per cent since January this year.
Wanganui-specific salary figures were unavailable. The $64,584 salary average was based on jobs advertised though seek.co.nz. The website currently has 39 Wanganui job vacancies listed.
Jenny Duncan, president of Wanganui Employers' Chamber of Commerce, said the news was "encouraging", especially as the report was representative of the professional sector.
Seek was more likely to represent professional jobs, while Trade Me was more likely to advertise trade vacancies, she said. "If it's come from Seek then it's probably an indication that maybe people are being prepared to raise salaries a little bit to attract people. That's a good thing. We would applaud that."
The Seek report showed the average Kiwi wage rose $1000 over the past five months. The average salary for jobs listed on seek.co.nz is now $72,731 - 1.3 per cent higher than in January this year.
"Rising employer confidence in the economy is slowly filtering through to the job market resulting in increased wages and more opportunities for job hunters," said Janet Faulding, general manager of Seek New Zealand.
"Businesses across all sectors and of all sizes are telling us that they are doing well at the moment and we expect to see further modest increases in salaries to attract and retain talent this year."
Figures show Taranaki is the highest paid region with an average salary on offer of $80,269 - thanks to its thriving mining, resources and energy sector.
While jobs in mining, resources and energy command the highest salaries, science and technology experienced the most growth with a 17 per cent increase in salary levels in the past five months, according to the report.
Another recent Seek study revealed that money was once again a big motivating factor for most employees.
More than 50 per cent of the 1500 full-time Kiwi employees surveyed said a pay rise or bonus would keep them in their current job and prevent them from looking for new opportunities.
This was a 3 per cent increase since 2012, and could be attributed to workers' confidence as the economy recovered, said Seek spokeswoman Sarah Wesley. Meanwhile, Statistics New Zealand's Survey of Working Life found that 85 per cent of all employed people were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their main jobs.