Growth in Skilled Vacancies Following September Fall

MEDIA RELEASE

14 November 2012

Growth in Skilled Vacancies Following September Fall

Job vacancies advertised online increased in October following a fall in September, according to the latest Jobs Online report from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

The trend in skilled vacancies has been flat since June 2012, although there has been some variation from month to month. The latest Household Labour Force Survey results showed weak growth in employment indicating that the labour market is still facing significant challenges.

The latest results show that skilled vacancies increased by 5.6 percent in October and total online job vacancies increased by 4.7 per cent compared to September.

Skilled job vacancies were up in the country’s main centres with the strongest growth for the month in Auckland (up by 5.4 percent), followed by Wellington (up by 5.1 percent) and Canterbury (up by 5.0 percent).

Over the last 12 months, overall growth in skilled vacancies in Canterbury has been strong (up by 36.5 percent), while growth in Auckland and Wellington has been relatively stable.

The continued growth in Canterbury has been driven by the demand for skilled workers in the construction and engineering industry (up by 108.4 percent) and hospitality and tourism (up by 59.1 percent).

“The strong growth in job vacancies in the construction and engineering industry shows that the Canterbury rebuild continues to drive demand for labour in the region,” says the Ministry’s General Manager of the Labour and Immigration Research Centre, Vasantha Krishnan.

Growth in online job vacancies has been positive over the past 12 months to October, with skilled job vacancies increasing by 14.2 percent and total job vacancies up by 15.0 percent.

ENDS

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