Latest BNZ/Seek Employment Report says hiring caution remains, but the South Island is leading the pack when it comes to annual job ad growth while Auckland and Wellington lag

Job advert volumes are at their highest level in two years, according to the May BNZ/Seek Employment Report.

Job ad volumes rose 0.3% month-on-month in May, following two months of decline. Job ad volumes were up 12.2% in the year to May, the highest volume Seek has reported in over two years, although not quite back to pre-pandemic levels.

BNZ senior economist Doug Steel says the monthly increase in May keeps job ads “in a relatively tight range in 2026.”

“The level of job ads suggests hiring caution remains, albeit consistent with modest employment growth. However, there remains a risk that this is not enough to prevent some further softening in the labour market. The Seek applications per job ad index gives a hint to this dynamic with another push higher in April.”

The report found applications per job ad, which are recorded with a one-month lag, were up 1.2% in April, on a seasonally adjusted basis. 

Steel says the applications per job ad index has remained at a “high level” for more than two years, although it has been descending from its peak in September 2025.

‘Significant differences’

According to Steel, job ads have varied significantly by region over the past year, reflecting “significant differences” in economic performance across the country. 

Steel says in the South Island, national trend job ads compared to a year ago were up 28.1% in Southland, 25.8% in Otago, 20.9% in Canterbury, and a “chart-topping” 34.4% on the West Coast. But regional strength was also evident in the North Island with a lift of 22.6% in Taranaki, 21.8% in Hawke's Bay and 18.7% in Manawatu.

“Comparative urban underperformance is reflected in an annual gain of 9.7% in Wellington and 6.2% in Auckland. Waikato and Bay of Plenty outcomes were middling with annual growth of 16.0% and 13.8% respectively,” he says.

The jobless rate dipped slightly in the March 2026 quarter, edging down from 5.4% in the December 2025 quarter to 5.3%. 

There were 163,000 unemployed people by the end of the first three months of the year, compared with 165,000 in the December 2025 quarter, as measured by the Household Labour Force Survey. On an annual basis, there were 7,000 more people unemployed in the March 2026 quarter compared to the March 2025 quarter.

Mixed construction indicators

According to Steel, construction indicators have been mixed of late and residential building consents have increased substantially over the past year. Despite this, residential building work put in place surprised markets recently by declining in the first quarter of the year.

“It may seem incongruous then that construction job ads were 38.9% higher than a year ago, the strongest annual growth across industries,” he says.

The latest gross domestic product (GDP) figures from Statistics New Zealand on Thursday found construction, the largest downward contributor in the GDP December quarter, was also down in the March quarter, falling by 1.0%. 

The country’s economy grew 0.8% in the first three months of the year, with annual GDP growth also up 0.8%. The size of the economy was $450 billion for the year ended March 2026.