Auckland labour market eases slightly

Auckland still has the tightest labour market in the country, although it has been easing since the start of last year, ANZ's job vacancies indicator shows.

Nationwide, the job vacancy rate was 1.7 per cent in September, down from 1.8 per cent in August.

In Auckland, the vacancy rate was 2.1 per cent, representing a tighter labour market than in other parts of the country, but unchanged from August.

"However, the broader theme is an easing in vacancy rates [in Auckland] from around 3 per cent close to the end of 2003 when the search for skilled and unskilled labour reached its peak," ANZ said in the report released yesterday.

Instead of reporting changes in the number of newspaper advertisements, ANZ expresses the number as a job vacancy rate, that is, as a percentage of the number of jobs in each region. That makes it easier to compare one region with another and track how the tightness of the labour market changes over time.

ANZ economist John Bolsover said the vacancy rate showed how much effort employers were putting into looking for applicants through newspaper ads.

Some of the decline in the nationwide vacancy rate might represent a switch to other methods of recruitment, he said.

Tuesday's quarterly survey of business opinion showed some softening of labour market indicators: hiring intentions, the difficulty of finding skilled and unskilled labour, and the proportion of firms citing labour as the factor most limiting their ability to increase sales. But with an unemployment rate of 3.7 per cent it was still a tight labour market, Bolsover said.

Vacancy rates in the Waikato region eased to 1.8 per cent from 2 per cent last month.