BNZ/SEEK Employment Report: An Upbeat Start To 2022

BNZ note that “any thoughts that job ads were losing their puff at the end of 2021 were well and truly put to bed with SEEK’s January job ads. They jumped a seasonally adjusted 8.5%. This gain was also significant in that it vaulted the level of job ads above the high it marked back in June 2021 (soon before community transmission of the Delta variant of COVID-19 triggered lockdowns, starting August). Job ads started 2022 at a record high, is the message. Of course, New Zealand is now facing disruption from the Omicron variant of COVID, so it will be interesting to see how job ads fare as this plays out. The reality for the meantime is that the labour market is exceptionally tight. This was highlighted by the fact the New Zealand’s unemployment rate plumbed a record low of 3.2% in the December quarter of 2021. This was corroborated by the SEEK index of candidate availability, which was cyclically very low in December. Staff remain very short in supply. The uplift in job ads in January reflected reasonably widely, geographically speaking. Trends in both Full-time and Part-time job advertising were upbeat in January although for Contract/Temp positions it was a bit flat. The industry picture remained mixed when assessing the trend measures.”