The SEEK Employment Report indicates a 1% rise in job advertisements for November, suggesting a modest recovery in the job market despite previous declines.
“Any increase in job ad volume is positive news at this stage, though this is only the second time job ads have risen this year, and only by 1%,” SEEK Country Manager Rob Clark said.
Concurrently, the number of applications per job ad increased by 3% month-on-month, which reflects heightened interest from job seekers.
According to Clark, “There were nominal month-on-month rises in Wellington, Canterbury, and Auckland, which solidifies a period of relative stability for these regions over the past five months, after over a year of broad decline.”
“While demand for workers in most industries has declined throughout the year, there are some that have bucked the trend, notably banking & financial services, where ad volumes have boomed over the past two months,” Clark stated.
Growth in the industrial and construction sectors also contributed to the overall rise in November job advertisements.
Many of the largest hiring industries experienced month-on-month declines, with healthcare and medical job ads decreasing by 7%, hospitality and tourism (down 5%), and retail (down 5%).
SEEK’s Advertised Salary Index (ASI) revealed a 3.1% increase for the three months ending in November.
Education and training salaries experienced the largest annual increase at 6.3%, driven by a significant rise in international student enrolment, which has heightened demand within the sector.
Following closely, salaries in the insurance and superannuation sectors rose by 5.6%, while engineering and government salaries increased by 5.5% and 5.3%, respectively, since November of the previous year.
“Although the rate of annual growth continued to slow, average advertised salaries continue to outpace the annual inflation rate,” Clark noted.
A report from SEEK during the previous months indicated a 0.5% decrease in job advertisements; the number of applications per job advertisement also fell by 2%.