Job confidence falls again

Employment confidence has taken a knock again, driven partly by a lacklustre job market which put unemployment at a decade high at the end of last year, latest figures show.

The Westpac McDermott Miller Employee Confidence Survey reveals employment confidence fell 0.7 points to 103.6 points during the March quarter, with more respondents saying jobs are harder to secure than in the previous quarter.

The biggest falls in employment confidence were recorded in Southland and Canterbury, while employees in the Bay of Plenty remain the most optimistic.

However employees remain confident that market conditions will improve, with a slight lift in employment confidence recorded in metropolitan areas including Auckland, Wellington and Otago.

Westpac senior economist Donna Purdue said the survey was consistent with the bank's thinking on the labour market.

"Employment growth remains lacklustre at present. However, as economic activity gains pace through the course of 2010, jobs growth will resume, the unemployment rate will decline (albeit gradually), and earnings growth will eventually pick up pace."

Optimism among private sector employees stalled after two quarters' growth, but employment confidence in the public sector rose slightly, up 0.5 points from 101.8 points in December.

McDermott Miller strategic planning consultancy managing director Richard Miller said the public sector had been affected by "Government policies to restrain public expenditure and selective public sector reorganisation".

Despite the result, figures showed optimists outnumbered pessimists during the March quarter, with a reading over 100 indicating there are more optimists than pessimists.

A net 14.3 per cent of respondents say they expect job opportunities to be plentiful this time next year, down from a record high of 16.6 per cent during the December quarter.

Perceived job security also fell during the quarter, from a net 13.2 per cent in December to 11.6 per cent in the March quarter.

Offsetting the decline was an expected lift in earnings.

A net 38.1 per cent of respondents said they expected to be earning more next year, up from 36.2 per cent in December.