According to fresh data from employment marketplace Seek, hiring demand is still on the rise while the volume of applications per job continues to fall for the seventh month in a row.
In its latest Seek NZ Employment Report for April, Seek said hiring demand rose again in April, with the number of national job ads up 0.8% compared to March, and up 13.1% compared to a year earlier.
The report found applications per job ad, which are recorded with a one-month lag, fell 1.6% in March compared to February. This is the seventh consecutive monthly drop, according to Seek, as candidate activity continues to decline from the peak levels the employment marketplace saw in August 2025.
Seek Country Manager Rob Clark said April’s job ad figures suggested the market remained in a “steady, if unspectacular” upward trend and the increased job ad activity seen through early 2026 was holding shape.
Construction job ads reported a monthly increase of 2.5% and and 44.8% increase year-on-year, which Seek’s report said reflected robust infrastructure and building activity.
On a month-on-month basis, Trades & Services and Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics were up 3.4% and 2.8% respectively in April, consistent with ongoing recovery in operational and supply-chain roles.
Information & Communication Technology job ads rose 1.3% month-on-month and 13.0% year-on-year.
Healthcare & Medical job ads edged up 0.4% in the month of April, while Community Services & Development job ads increased 2.7% in the same time frame, which Seek said pointed to persistent demand in essential services.
“Infrastructure, trades, logistics and operational roles remain strong, and the geographic spread of growth is a healthy development,” Clark said.
“The South Island continues to be where the numbers are most striking. The region has been a consistent performer throughout this cycle, driven by a concentration of goods-producing industries, infrastructure activity and operational roles that have proven relatively resilient.”
Seek’s report found job ad growth was more widespread across the regions, with Otago (up 3.4% on a monthly basis and rising 31.7% compared to a year ago) and Southland (jumping 2.9% month-on-month and up 30% year-on-year) continuing to post “standout annual gains”.
Clark said job ads in major metropolitan areas like Auckland and Wellington were up 1.6% and 0.4%, respectively, for the month of April.
“Their annual gains of around 11% reflect a recovery that arrived later and is still finding its pace relative to the South,” he said.
Job ads are also up on a quarterly basis, with a 2.9% increase compared to the previous quarter and a 12.5% rise when compared to the same period in the previous year.
Demand for AI skills growing 'rapidly'
Seek said demand for AI skills also continues to grow “rapidly”. Job ads with references to AI have more than doubled in the past year and are up 4.1% monthly when comparing April to March.
AI references within consulting & strategy roles were up 14.3% month-on-month and within advertising, arts & media are up 11.6% in April. However, Seek’s report noted that job ads including AI-related keywords only appeared in 2.9% of total job ads.
In a pre-budget speech on Tuesday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she wants Government agencies to come up with proposals to “logically merge their existing activities around citizen-facing functions, using common technology platforms.”
Willis also announced on Tuesday that the number of Government departments is going to be reduced, revealing an “in-principle” target of 55,000 public servants by July 2029, which will remove 8,700 workers from the public service.
This, alongside a sinking lid being placed on many agency budgets, will create savings of $2.4 billion over the forecast period, averaging $597 million a year, according to Willis.
“The overhaul will reduce the number of government departments, increase the use of AI [artificial intelligence] and other digital tools, and deliver significant savings,” she said.
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