Adding to the tight labour market was rising applications per job, which was up 1% in September (a lag month) when compared with August.
“After breaking trend in August and dropping 2%, applications per job ad rose again in September and are still extremely elevated compared to pre-Covid averages,” Seek’s report said.
Applications per job ad have risen year on year in all industries except farming, animals and conservation.
Roles in retail and consumer products have attracted the most interest on a yearly basis, up 108%. This was followed by communication services and development (+96%).
Meanwhile, hospitality and tourism job ad volumes rose 8% in October compared with the previous month and have been up 37% since June.
Demand for Government and defence workers, which has been on the rise since August, rose another 15% in October.
Banking and financial services (18%) and community services and development (7%) were among the other industries with notable growth.
Leading the decliners in job ad volumes were education and training (-9%) and healthcare and medical (-6%).
Regionally, Otago (5%), Wellington (3%) and Waikato (2%) were the largest regions to record job ad rises.
October was only the second month job ad volumes rose in Wellington.
“Some regions, including Wellington and Waikato, saw job ads rise in October, which is positive given the many months where the larger regions declined,” Clark said.
Leading the national decline in job ad volumes were Auckland (-2%) and Canterbury (-4%).
New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in the September quarter, up from 4.6%, according to Stats NZ.
