Rob Clark: Seek Country Manager on the slight rise in the volume of job ads

The job market remains in a tough spot despite modest improvements.  

The latest Seek NZ Employment Report finds job ad volumes have risen 1% for the fourth consecutive month and 7% year-on-year. 

The growth is seen across most regions and industries. 

Country manager Rob Clark says we're heading in the right direction. 

He told Mike Hosking that hospitality and tourism is important over the summer, but they’ve also seen some good progress in other industries, such as IT and construction. 

IT is now up 15% year-on-year, he says, and construction is up almost 30% now. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More signs of New Zealand and turn around. Job ads
are up seven percent on a year ago, best November
since twenty twenty two. Sport and wrecker hot along with construction,
tourism and education applications perab though interestingly, are also up.
A Rob Clark, a six country manager, enters back with us,
Rob morning, Good morning, mich seven percent at any other
time year on year. Are we starting to roll a

(00:20):
bit here? Is that a good number or we're still cautious?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's a good number we are seeing. I would describe
it as modest gain. So that's the fourth consecutive month
we have seen a one percent increase, which gives us
a sort of three percent quarter on quarter growth. So
it's certainly a lot better than it has been over
the last couple of years.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
So there's no seasonality about it. See, I look at
tourism and go we'll hold on summertime tourists. Of course,
the job ads are up. Is there anything that.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
It's a good point make? No, these are seasonally adjusted numbers.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Okay, tourism over the summer will that be a thing
and therefore we'll see more of this? In other words,
can I feel good about these numbers.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well you should feel good, you know, host down and
tourism obviously is a really important over the summer. But
we've also seen you know, some good progress in other industries.
Take it for example, they've had a pretty torrid time
over the last couple of years, but they're now up
fifteen percent year on year, which is which is really
encouraging in a good sign. Equally, you know, areas like

(01:19):
construction which also has been hit pretty hard, up almost
thirty percent year on year now.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Right, So that's the sectors. What about the regionalogy? Are
we seeing much variation there generally?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
So, so if we take the latest month, you know,
pretty consistent across the board. There's a couple of standouts.
One is, you know the sort of Canterbury Otago Southland
area is rarely going well. You know, they're up sort
of in the vicinity of twenty percent in terms of
job ad volumes year on year, so some really good
progress there, you know, good investment down there, with some

(01:51):
population growth, AG sectors doing well, Tourism on the rebound.
And I guess the other call out is Auckland, after
a couple of years of declines, is now sort of
looks like it's a little more stable, increased by one
percent in the latest month, which is encouraging it.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Good stuff. The applications being up, what's that tell you?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
It's still really competitive out there mic for job seekers.
You know, we're still seeing record levels of applications relative
to the number of opportunities, so it's still pretty tough
if you are looking for roles. Unfortunately, we are seeing
a bit more activity in kiwis applying for roles in Australia,
and that's just not unusual when we have an unemployment

(02:32):
rate that's higher than Australia.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
I'll tell you when I notice at the moment students
hard work. If you're a student, getting.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
A job absolutely really tough. You know, personally I can
vouch at that as well. And you know, we're seeing
a lot of people taking multiple jobs, part time here,
part time there, really grinding it out to find some work.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Has the good people thing ever waned? I mean, and
from personal experience and various bits and pieces of my
good people still hard to find, always have been, probably
always will be. Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
That's absolutely fair? Always the case. We always talk in averages,
of course, and you'll have some roles that there's a
plenty of huge number of talent available, but there's always
really tough areas which are hard to fill. More specialist roles,
fire skilled roles, typically in the sort of medical space engineering,
those sorts of sectors.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
You feel good for twenty six or not.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I feel better there, you go all better than with
it this time last year.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Make yeah, and you're a nice to talk Rob Clark,
who's these seek country? I feel better something. We'll take
that one week.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio