White collar roles drive online job ad growth

"White collar industries" such as architecture were the big standout in job ads placed between May and August. Photo / Thinkstock

Online job advertisements jumped in the second quarter of the year as more white-collar roles became available around the country, according to latest data.

Employment website Seek.co.nz said 91,000 jobs were advertised in the four months to August, nearly 8,000 more than in the first quarter of the year.

Top growth industries included design and architecture, banking and financial services, and marketing and communications.

Rising business and consumer confidence was now starting to flow over into an increase in hiring, said Janet Faulding, general manager of Seek NZ.

"We have been keeping a close eye as various sectors have shown signs of being positively influenced by rising confidence," Faulding said.

"This impact has been a little slower to show in terms of job creation so it's encouraging to now see job numbers on the rise."

ANZ Bank's latest Business Outlook survey showed business confidence remained at elevated levels in August. A net 48.1 per cent of firms expected general business conditions to improve in the year ahead.

Faulding said Auckland and Wellington were seeing the strongest growth, with the number of jobs in each region increasing by 12 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

White collar industries were the big standout between May and August, she said.

The number of design and architecture roles surged by 35 per cent; banking and financial services jobs soared by 26 per cent; admin and office support roles grew 16 per cent; and marketing and communications vacancies were up 15 per cent.

Seek said it also received 23 per cent more job ads in the trades and services industry.

"While the trades and services, construction and hospitality industries have certainly been leading the way for a while there, it's encouraging to now see the number of job ads across a variety of sectors on the rise as business confidence continues to grow outside of the Canterbury rebuild," Faulding said.

The positive data from Seek comes after similarly upbeat figures out last month, which showed total newspaper and internet job advertisements numbers were on the rise.

ANZ said newspaper and internet ads rose 3.5 per cent in July, after a small rise of 0.3 per cent in June. The ANZ Job Index was now 4.5 per cent higher than a year ago.

Sources used by ANZ to compile its job ad statistics included NZ Herald, Dominion Post, Press, Waikato Times, Seek, and Trade Me.