Employment Hero: July Data Points To Labour Market Green Shoots And Strongest Pay Rises In South Island And Trades

Employment Hero, the HR software innovator used by over 10,000 businesses and 70,000 employees in New Zealand, has released its July job data revealing early signs of improvement in the labour market alongside the industries and regions leading wage growth.

Although Stats NZ reported that New Zealand’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was up by .1% to 5.2 percent at the end of the June 2025 quarter, there are strong signs of improvement, according to Employment Hero. Employment Hero has just released current NZ statistics on hiring behaviours built from aggregated anonymised real-time employment data of over 10,000 businesses (70,000 employees) in New Zealand.

Ben Thompson, CEO, Employment Hero explained “The official stats might be stuck in neutral, but real-time hiring data tells a different story - green shoots are starting to sprout. Employment Hero’s latest NZ numbers show employment growth sitting at an average of 2.4% to the end of July, with casual roles surging 10.2%. That’s not static - it’s definite movement and while the annual figures are still digging out of a hole, the quarterly trend is upwards. Job seekers might finally be seeing the start of a turning tide even if the official spreadsheets haven’t caught up yet.”

This data flies in the face of some of NZ’s largest job sites who are reporting a decline in job adverts. Ben Thompson said “This might be because employees aren’t looking to just traditional job sites to find work anymore and AI-enabled hiring platforms are starting to win a porting of the market fed-up with traditional platforms. People don’t want to feel like just another application in a big old pile. We use cutting-edge AI technology called ‘SmartMatch’ which proactively presents roles that fit a candidate’s skills and goals, even if they’ve never applied for them. It’s personalised recruitment that sees roles come to them.”

Employment growth highlights

• South Island employment up 5.4% year on year compared to 0.6% in the North Island
• Casual work up 10.2% year on year compared to part-time (0.4%) and full-time (0.2%)
• Construction and trade services have seen the greatest national rise in employment with 10.4% year on year growth followed by retail, hospitality and tourism at 4.2%
• The younger the employee the greater the employment growth, with the total number of 18–24 yr olds employed up by 13.8% and 25–34 yr olds up by 3.5%

Wage growth highlights

Median wages across New Zealand rose 4.0% year on year to the end of July, according to new real-time payroll data from HR software innovator Employment Hero. The gains were uneven across regions, industries and contract types which is ‘danger zone’ for companies ahead of the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill, which will ban pay secrecy clauses in New Zealand as well as an increase in the living wage to $28.95 per hour starting 1 September 2025.

Ben Thompson, CEO of Employment Hero, said the data paints a mixed picture:

“It’s encouraging to see median wages climbing, but not all workers are feeling the lift equally. While some industries and age groups are enjoying above-average gains, others are flatlining or even going backwards. With pay secrecy set to end, we’ll see a sharper focus on who’s winning and who’s missing out and whether pay aligns with living wage standard. Employers need to be ready for those conversations.”

Key findings include:

• South Island up 5.1% YoY, while North Island grew at 4.7% from a higher median hourly rate of $36.50 compared with $33.70 in the South Island
• By contract type: part-time wages saw the biggest YoY lift (+5.3%), full-time rose 4.3%, while casual roles fell 1.1%
• By industry: construction and trade services led the pack with +6.2% YoY growth, followed by science and technology at +5.1%
• By age group: 25–34-year-olds saw the largest increase (+5.8%), with 45–54-year-olds close behind (+5.5%)

Ben Thompson added that “Once pay secrecy is gone, the numbers will speak for themselves. Workers will know where they stand and the best talent will gravitate toward employers who can prove they pay fairly and competitively.”

Sources: Employment Hero real-time payroll data (10,000 businesses / 70,000 employees, July 2025); Stats NZ Labour Market Statistics June 2025.

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