It’s a good time to be a job-hunter, new data from Trade Me shows.
There was a record 81,984 vacancies listed on the site in the first quarter of this year.
Demand for local talent could intensify – a Trade Me survey found 34 per cent of jobseekers had considered a move overseas for a new role, up 10 per cent on last year.
Along with high demand for workers, wages also increased. The average salary for advertised roles rose 4 per cent to $65,799.
Trade Me Jobs sales director Matt Tolich said jobseekers were still in the driver’s seat, but the market was about to get complicated.
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The Trade Me survey showed 60 per cent of survey respondents would be open to changing jobs if a better opportunity came along, making it a difficult environment for employers to retain staff.
New Zealand was likely to see a significant number of migrants enter the country when the borders opened this year, but this would not be entirely good news for employers, he said.
“The flip side of this will be the large number of Kiwis that have been holding off on their big OE for the past couple of years finally packing up and heading overseas,” Tolich said.
The record number of job listings was 15 per cent higher than last year and 18 per cent higher than last quarter.
Big increases in listings were seen around the regions with the Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Manawatū/Whanganui all breaking records.
“The star of the show was the Northland region, where we saw a whopping 34 per cent increase in job listings when compared with the same period last year.”
Marlborough and the West Coast were not far behind with a 29 per cent year-on-year increase, while Canterbury had a 26 per cent year-on-year jump.
Wellington and Auckland only had comparatively small percentage increases in listings with 6 per cent and 7 per cent respectively, Tolich said.
Salaries were rising fast in regions with a high demand for employees, he said.
“Bay of Plenty ($64,413), Canterbury ($63,282), Gisborne ($63,896) and Marlborough ($61,071), all saw record high salaries in Q1.”
But the highest average salary was still in Wellington with an average pay of $81,280 closely followed by Auckland with an average salary of $79,641, he said.
IT roles continued to dominate the highest-paid list with the top eight largest average salaries in the sector, he said.
The agriculture, fishing and forestry and construction and roading sectors also had a large year-on-year increase in average salary, up 8 per cent year-on-year.
The industries with the largest jumps in job listings were manufacturing and operations, up 35 per cent and transport and logistics, up 29 per cent.
The healthcare sector was also in need for workers after being put under pressure from Omicron, as listings increased 25 per cent year-on-year, he said.
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