Tight job market eases as immigration rises

Job advertisements increased for the third month in a row, and vacancies in sales positions surged.

Employment website Seek NZ’s latest monthly report shows that the number of job postings increased by 1% in March.

It was down 11% year-on-year, but up 19% compared to March 2019.

Sales jobs led the monthly increase, up 8%, followed by retail and education.

Manufacturing, transportation and logistics were the industries with the most job advertisements on websites in March, rising 1% and overtaking trade and services, which fell 1%.

Seek Country Manager Rob Clark said a 4% increase in applications per job advert in February eased the tight job market a bit.

Find applications reported per job ad with a time lag of 1 month.

“We believe there are several reasons for this. [the rise in applications per job ad]One has definitely grown the talent pool a bit due to net migration. The second is our view that candidates are becoming a little more aggressive in looking for new positions,” he said.

“This is great news for recruiters. If you remember last year, one of the biggest challenges recruiters faced was finding talent.”

Clark said it was still too early to tell if the hot job market had cooled as the market has been flat for the past three months.

The number of applications per job ad was up 13% month-on-month, the highest in trade and services.

Across the region, Hawke’s Bay employers recovered strongly after Cyclone Gabriel, with job ads up 23% compared to February.