130,000 Jobs in First Half of 2015

Despite New Zealand’s stalling business confidence and a dropping dollar SEEK’s data shows that job growth is still evident with employment opportunities looking better than this time last year

The first half of 2015 has delivered 130,000 new jobs, the latest data from SEEK has revealed. Compared to the same time last year new job ads have grown by 2.5% in the first six months, in spite of the drop in confidence and slowing economic indicators.

Over 60% of the 29 classifications noted on www.seek.co.nz, New Zealand’s biggest employment market place, experienced growth in new job ads and 10 of these experienced double digit increases.

Sarah Macartney, SEEK Corporate Communications Manager, noted how impressive this growth is across a range of industries given the current volatility in economic indicators.

“New Zealanders are hearing a lot of ‘declines’, ‘reductions’ and ‘drops’ at the moment but pleasingly this isn’t in relation to jobs. The latest data released by SEEK noted that majority of industries have experienced some growth over the first six months of 2015, when compared to the same period last year”.

“No one industry is driving this growth showing great employment prospects for people with a range of skills and experience. And of those that have seen a decline in new job ads, 75 per cent of these are by five per cent or less.”

The Banking and Finance Industry experienced the biggest growth, with a 33% increase in the number of jobs advertised in January to June. This growth has been driven by a mix of frontline staff roles and more specialised roles, with these five sectors experiencing the biggest increases:

1. Banking Retail and Branch Staff – 101%

2. Financial planners – 92%

3. Compliance and Risk Managers and Analyst roles – 71%

4. Mortgage Lenders/Advisers – 44%

5. Banking Management roles – 39%

BNZ's talent acquisition manager, Victoria Hayward, says that banking and finance continues to attract people because it's a dynamic and fast-paced industry with a growing need for digital capability and it has a strong focus on flexible working and diversity.

"At BNZ we're investing in growth markets and focussing our people where our customers need them."

The Education and Training industry saw a 31% increase in roles advertised, the second highest growth of any classification in this period.

“Kiwi Teachers are highly regarded, recently topping the Teaching and Learning International Survey as the most highly trained, best qualified and most experienced in the world. With New Zealand’s population growth speeding up and immigration continuing to increase we expect demand to continue for our teachers,” surmises Ms Macartney.

The other top five industries with the biggest gains in job ads were Design and Architecture, with an increase of 29%, Advertising, Arts and Media with an increase of 22% and Legal grew by 20% year on year.

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