Auckland leads rise in online job adverts

Online job site Seek is reporting a rise in job adverts, led by Auckland, with ads rising at a faster rate than applicants.

Last week, Statistics New Zealand surprised commentators when it announced the unemployment rate reached 7.3 per cent in the December quarter, up from 6.5 per cent in the previous three months.

A net 2000 people lost their jobs in the December quarter compared with an average of 17,000 a quarter over the previous nine months, while the labour force unexpectedly rose by 16,000 people.

Seek general manager Annemarie Duff said that despite the official unemployment figures, the news may be more positive than it looked.

"Today's data shows there are significant increases in job numbers. It'll just take some time for supply and demand to converge," she said.

According to Seek's seasonally adjusted figures, the number of new job ads rose across the country by 10.9 per cent in January, maintaining an upward trend since mid-2009.

Auckland was dominant with 15.9 per cent growth last month, while Wellington and Christchurch were far more modest with 1.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent growth respectively.

Since July, new job ads have risen by 31.4 per cent in New Zealand, compared to 26.2 per cent in Australia.

Latest figures from the Seek employment index also showed the number of jobs advertised was rising faster than the number of applications.

The index, which compares the ratio of new job ads placed with Seek to the number of applications for these jobs, rose by 6.7 per cent in January, and is 17.6 per cent higher than in July.

Growth was highest in Auckland, with a 12 per cent rise.

- NZPA