Seek Nz Employment Report - July

NOTE: The commentary, figures and tables in this report and all reports henceforth will refer to trend series data (not seasonally adjusted data as per previous reports).

*Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to June data.

National Insights:

• Job ad volumes have remained unchanged for the past ten months.
• Ad volumes are now 2% lower y/y.
• Applications per job ad have not changed m/m.

Region Insights:

• Ad volumes rose by 1% m/m in five regions, including Canterbury, Hawkes Bay, Southland, Tasman and West Coast.
• Among the regions where ad volumes have grown y/y are Canterbury (7%), Wellington (6%) and Otago (5%).

Industry Insights:

• Job ads in Information & Communication Technology have been rising steadily since November.
• Ad volumes within the Construction and Professional Services sectors grew by 1% m/m.

Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager, says:

“As the SEEK Employment Report moves from using seasonally adjusted data to the trend series data, we aim to better outline the overall changes in the employment market, and with no change to ad volumes over the past ten months, the trend is clear.
 
“Ad volumes are at a low but have stopped declining and we have seen very promising growth within certain sectors, industries and regions year-on-year.
 
"Worker demand in Southland continues to grow, thanks to a rise in housing and construction activity for the region, and this is being met with rising interest among candidates.  
 
“Nationally, the demand for Information & Communications Technology workers has been growing for eight months, and more recently, we have seen an uptick in demand for Construction workers and Engineers, which is something we can expect to continue with big investment in the sector.”

National Trends

Job ad volumes have not changed since October, marking ten months of stability.
 
Having declined 2% y/y, July marked the slowest annual decline to be recorded since pre-COVID.
 
After dropping 1% in May, applications per job ad did not change in June, meaning levels are not at their highest peak, but do remain extremely elevated.

Region Trends

There were 1% increases in ad volumes in five regions m/m: Canterbury, Hawkes Bay, Southland, Tasman and West Coast.
 
This marks the seventh consecutive month of growth in Southland bringing the annual rate to 9%. Ad volumes in Canterbury have also been steadily increasing over time and are now 7% higher y/y.
 
While ad volumes in Wellington have remained steady the past two months, growth toward the end of 2024 and start of 2025 has resulted in job ads 6% higher than the same time last year.
 
Monthly ad volumes in Auckland have not increased for three years, but have remained steady for the past two months. The annual rate of decline for the region has slowed to 7%.
 
Applications per job ad rose notably in Southland (4%), in Taranaki (3%) and in Otago (2%).

Industry Trends

The Construction and Professional Services sector recorded growth in July, rising 1% respectively.
 
Within the Construction sector the relatively small industry of Design & Architecture rose 3% while both the Construction and Engineering industries grew 2%. Demand for Construction workers in particular has shown a steep rise since late 2024, up 13% since September.
 
In the Professional Services sector, demand for Insurance & Superannuation workers jumped 3% m/m and has risen steadily over the past quarter. Demand for Information & Communication Technology workers has been growing since November 2024, and rose another 2% in July. Ad volumes increased significantly over the past year for Management (43% y/y), Software Engineers (27% y/y) and Product Management & Developers (27% y/y).
 
Job ads declined m/m in the Public Sector (-1%) with Education & Training and Government & Defence both falling 3%. After rising significantly during the year to April, Government & Defence ad volumes have since been declining slowly, but remain 23% higher y/y. Community Services & Development are the only Public Sector roles which grew in demand m/m, up 1%.

Notes:
(1) From August 2025, all SEEK Employment Reports will refer to the trend data series and not the seasonally adjusted data series. The trend data series applies a weighted moving average to the seasonal adjusted figures (using a 13-term Henderson moving average) to smooth out short-term fluctuations and noise. The trend data help identify the longer-term direction by filtering out both seasonal effects and short-term volatility.
(2) The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including: a) seasonal adjustments applied to the SEI; b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI; and c) the exclusion of Company Listings (included under Company Profiles) from the SEI.
(3) Caution is recommended when interpreting month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks. trend estimates during the COVID period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks.

© Scoop Media