Jobs ads at record levels, squeeze on labour market - Seek

The Hospitality & Tourism industry has experienced a resurgence in advertised jobs. Photo / 123RF

For the second consecutive month, employment marketplace Seek has seen the number of jobs advertised on its website hit a new record high.

The Seek NZ employment report for April showed job adverts were up 12 per cent month on month. Meanwhile, the number of applications per job ad fell nine per cent month-on-month.

The new data lends weight to employer concerns about labour shortages restricting the capacity for economic growth.

"New Zealand is truly in a jobseeker's market," said Seek NZ general manager Janet Faulding.

"Nearly every industry across New Zealand is experiencing a record number of jobs advertised."

That included a big lift for the hospitality and tourism sector.

"This year we have seen the hospitality & tourism industry experience a resurgence. Last month, the demand has continued with a 42.7 per cent increase month-on-month."

The Seek data follows last week's labour market data which showed unemployment had dropped to 4.7 per cent in the first quarter of the year, from 4.9 per cent in the last quarter of 2020.

Both the fall in unemployment and employment growth exceeded a consensus of economist expectations.

However, business confidence surveys increasingly show firms are struggling to find the staff they need to keep up with demand.

After hospitality and tourism, the sectors seeing the next biggest rise were Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics (up by 18.1 per cent), and Information & Communication Technology.

Job adverts were up 355 per cent year on year, although this was off the low base of the Level 4 lockdown in April 2020.

The report includes Seek New Job Ad Index, which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications.

Closed borders and restriction on migrant workers have been a key driver of labour shortages in many sectors.

On Monday the Government announced plans to introduce dedicated places for 500 skilled migrant workers in managed isolation facilities, as a measure to address shortages.