"Payroll officers are in consistently high demand as it is a specialist role and there is a lack of new entrants to the payroll labour market. Add the existing shortage of strong payroll officers resulting from long tenure, and demand is high."
Walker says he is seeing particularly strong demand for accounts payable managers in the construction industry. "A lot of candidates have gained AP skills in a wider role, but have not completed full function AP and lack high volume experience, which is crucial," he says.
This demand for finance staff means there are plenty of opportunities for people wanting to do temporary work.
"We are currently seeing companies hire more temporary than permanent staff due to budgetary constraints," says Walker. "There is a preference for candidates who are strong communicators and have industry experience in New Zealand."
He says reduced graduate intakes over the past three years have resulted in a shortage of experienced business advisory services and audit professionals.
"Business advisory services managers are sought due to business activity increasing in the corporate sector," says Walker. "Employers have ramped up graduate intakes for February in preparation for the increase in compliance work.
"However, employers have a strong preference for permanent accountants with experience already gained from CA firms."
The report also looks at recruitment trends in the public sector, which it says often has a knock-on effect to the corporate sector.
It says while government departments have decreased their permanent recruitment activities, a large number of those jobs are now being filled by fixed-term or contract roles, "as these types of roles will not show up as official headcount".
The report notes an increase in demand for civil engineers in Auckland over the three months to July and Walker expects this trend to continue. Demand is particularly high for candidates with experience running multiple small- to medium-sized projects in land development, subdivision, storm water drainage and road building.
The report says there are several large capital works projects within the water sector about to start and that design consultancy experience within excavation, tunnelling and piping will be required.
The property industry is looking positive and hiring intentions are growing with hints of a skills shortage in areas such as property development, property management and project management.
Walker predicts the property market to keep improving over the next three months with employers looking to increase permanent headcount and invest in their current workforce. Given this trend, it's no surprise a big increase in temporary assignments has been forecast by the firm especially in Auckland.
The Hays report says the overall increase in construction work has resulted in "significant skills shortages" and there are fewer candidates willing to move to Canterbury/Christchurch.
"Employers are willing to sponsor the right candidates from other parts of the world, but the immigration process can be difficult to navigate."
People who can write computer programs and develop Apps for tablets and smartphones are in short supply, according to the report. Candidates with a Java background, iOS and Android development skills with commercial experience are highly sought after.
In addition, there is a shortage of people with experience and development skills in IBM technologies, SOAP, web services, RESTful services and the Oracle SOA Suite. The issue is that employers with permanent jobs to offer want people with experience. Permanent jobs are the focus as companies want to retain the people they already have.
Call centre staff with solid telesales experience are still in high demand, says the report.
There is still a lot of recruitment taking place in this area with bulk intakes for the New Year being confirmed, says the report. This will drive down candidate numbers that could lead to a rise in entry-level salaries.
