Jobs Online June 2019 results issued and notice of changes

Online job advertisements decreased by 0.6 per cent in the June 2019 quarter, compared to the March 2019 quarter’s 0.1 per cent increase. Among the nine industry groups, for the quarter, the decrease was across all industries except for the Primary and Health Care sectors. Online advertisements for the Primary sector grew the fastest in Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Otago. The largest increase in Health Care advertisements was in Bay of Plenty.

The largest reductions in online advertising over the quarter came from the Machinery Operators & Drivers occupation group, followed by the Technicians & Trades occupation group. Over the year to June 2019, the only increase in online advertisements by broad skill level groupings was for Highly-skilled occupations.

Over the quarter, there was a fall in advertised vacancies. However, there was growth in Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay, Wellington and Manawatu - Whanganui/Taranaki. Over the year, Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay and Wellington were the main growth regions, partially offsetting the decrease in Canterbury.

For more information on MBIE labour market analysis, visit our website.

Notice of changes to report schedule from July 2019

From July 2019, The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Jobs Online data series will be published quarterly. A significant change to the report is that it will now include a more detailed analysis of the changes in the regions. Reporting quarterly rather than monthly enables more meaningful insights and trends based on a detailed analysis of three months of data and reducing the reporting of less significant, short-term monthly fluctuations. Previously a high level summary of trend data was published monthly, with comprehensive analysis and report issued quarterly.

The quarterly reports will be published in the final week of July, October, January and April respectively.

Jobs Online is a regular data series that measures changes in online job advertisements from four internet job boards — Seek, Trade Me Jobs, Education Gazette and Kiwi Health Jobs. Job vacancies are an important indicator of labour demand and changes in the economy.

The relationship between job advertisements and labour demand is complex, particularly when disaggregated at an industry, occupation and regional level. For example, an increase in job advertisements by a particular industry may indicate:

• the industry is expanding and looking for new workers, or
• the industry has a high rate of churn (workers are moving between businesses, but overall employment is not necessarily increasing).

Likewise, declining job advertising can signal:

• reduced headcount in an industry, or
• the industry is using alternatives to advertising in their hiring process (such as word-of-mouth or social networks).

With these caveats in mind, data from Jobs Online tracks well with other labour market indicators, such as the unemployment rate.

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