Wellington Businesses Anticipate Employment Growth

Wellington Businesses Anticipate Employment Growth

While unemployment continues to rise, the outlook for the Wellington labour market shows some promise according to the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“The Chamber’s latest businesses confidence survey showed increased numbers of Wellington employers are expecting to take on new staff,” said Chamber CEO, Charles Finny.

“26% of respondents expected an increase in full time employees in the next three months against 11% expecting a reduction. The majority are expecting no change.

“In spite of the increasing unemployment rate, many Wellington businesses are still citing ‘staff shortages’ and ‘difficulty to recruit and retain’ as their key concerns.

“While not so accurate at the regional level, today’s Household Labour Force Survey data shows that the Wellington labour market is faring better than the country as a whole with a 6.3% unemployment rate (compared with the non-seasonally adjusted, New Zealand-wide figure of 6.8%).

“While some sectors are less optimistic than others and some uncertainty exists as decisions are made in the government sector, there is a core of businesses looking to expand which is encouraging for the regional economy,” Mr Finny concluded.

ENDS

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