Job ads have dropped to their lowest level since October 2013 - excluding the volatile pandemic lockdown period, according to the latest BNZ/SEEK Employment Report.
BNZ's Chief Economist Mike Jones says labour demand is “withering” and job ads have been on a declining trend since late 2022.
Job ads dropped by 8.2% in June, the steepest monthly fall since the lockdown-affected August 2021 and the fifth month in a row of job ad declines.
Seek had reported last month that job advertisements had fallen 5% in May.
“Falling job ads are symptomatic of ailing demand for labour, a trend that is increasingly turning up in other indicators,” Jones says.
“This slowing in demand, alongside ample labour supply, saw the number of job applications per ad rise to a fresh high in May.”
Jones says currently, this ratio is 57% higher compared to this time last year, which suggests “additional increases” in the unemployment rate.
In the March quarter, the unemployment rate rose from 4% to 4.3%.
The figures from Statistics NZ showed that the labour market was weakening at a faster rate than expected by the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) and some bank economists.
The unemployment rate for the June quarter will be released on August 7.
According to the BNZ/SEEK Employment Report, the decline in job ads during June was spread across nearly all industries.
Job ads related to Consulting & Strategy were up 9% month on month as were job ads in Design & Architecture which reported a 4% increase.
But Jones says these looked to be a correction from “outsized declines the previous month” as those same two industries recorded the largest declines in May.
Over the last 12 months, the job ads that have fallen back the most were Government & Defence (down 59%), Construction (down 50%), and Consulting & Strategy (down 48%).
In terms of region, Wellington and Marlborough were the regions hardest hit by job ad decline over the past year.
“The relatively larger declines in job ads associated with the government sector show up in the regional data,” Jones says.
Job ads in Wellington have fallen 46% compared to 12 months ago and job ads in Marlborough have fallen 50% in the same period.
The regions to see the smallest job ad declines are Taranaki, which reported job ads falling 28% in the last year and Otago decreasing by 24%.
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