Rob Clark: SEEK Country Manager on the number of job applications far outweighing job ads

Job applications remain at historic highs, far outweighing the number of jobs being advertised. 

SEEK's revealed job ads dropped 2% in December and are down 22% on 2023. 

While the number of applications per ad also dropped 2%, they remain 32% higher than in 2023.  

Country Manager Rob Clark told Ryan Bridge that since June they’ve seen job ads decline by just 1%, but certainly at the start of 2024 they saw a pretty significant decline. 

He says the feeling is that we’ve hit the bottom and are bouncing along it, but they’re not seeing a ton of green shoots at the moment.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back here on Earth. Seek has released their employment report
from December. Job ads down two percent, number of people
applying for jobs down two percent. Rob Clark's seat Country Manager.
Good morning, Rob, It's good to have you on the show.
Let's start with the numbers and how consumed we should
be about them. Is in December, wouldn't it be typically
a bad month for job ads being listed?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Anyway, it is a slower period, but it's secondly adjusted.
So what we saw in December was a two percent decline,
which all set the games that we saw in November,
which was a two percent increase. So we're really pretty
volatile at the moment.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
The annual drop was twenty two percent, Right, has that
been slowing or you know, have you seen a trend
in the longer.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Term a little bit? So since June we've seen our
job ad volumes declined by just one percent, but certainly
at the start of twenty twenty four we saw pretty
significant fall. So we sort of feel like we're hit
the bottom and we're dancing along it, but we're not
seeing a ton of green shoots.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Just at the moment, where are you better off being
in New Zealand if you're looking for a job at
the moment, and the centers and the rurally whereabouts.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, look, most of the jobs are always in the centers.
But when we look at the performance of you know,
sort of the regions versus the main urban centers, we're
certainly seeing some of the smaller regions perform very well.
So let's take Otago that's performed really well in twenty
twenty four only down eight percent, versus let's say Auckland
twenty five percent and Taranaki has performed extremely well. So

(01:31):
they were pretty much flat throughout twenty twenty four. The
main centers in December, for example, Wellington, Canterbury, Auckland down
between three and five percent.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Any industry is showing signs of growth that you want
to mention.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, look, banking and finance have had a good run recently,
but unfortunately, you know, the declinent are pretty much across
the board. Of course, you'll get certain roles that are
in high demand, you know, some of the specialist areas
and engineering, you know, cybersecurity and some of those types
of roles, but the broad rolls across let's say trades

(02:06):
and services, office and admin, advertising media found it pretty
tough in the last wee, while.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, it sounds like and just finally the fact that
we've got you know, a number of people applying for
jobs also down, does that kind of offset things?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Not really? I mean the real story there is the
number of applications is record high's relative to the number
of jobs available. So what that means is for job
seekers it's really competitive. You know a lot of employers
that are spoiled for choice at the moment in terms of,
you know, who they can pick because the number of
applicants is just so high. So it's really important for

(02:42):
job seekers to make sure they put the best foot forward.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Thanks so much, Rob, Rob Clark seek country manager with
the latest numbers from December on a job. For more
from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks
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