Job ads higher than usual for season

By BRIAN FALLOW

A tight labour market kept job advertising at abnormally high levels last month.

ANZ Bank, which monitors job advertisement levels, said that advertising in Auckland normally dropped by 40 per cent between November and December.

But last month it dropped only 21 per cent.

When seasonally adjusted, this represented a 33.6 per cent increase and underpinned an 18.5 per cent rise nationwide.

Actual and seasonally adjusted job ads in Auckland were both 25 per cent higher than they were in December 2002, said ANZ chief economist David Drage.

"It appears that the strength of the labour market has prompted employers to continue advertising in December at higher levels than has historically been the norm."

Drage said the result was consistent with the Institute of Economic Research's quarterly survey of business opinion last week in which firms reported increasing difficulty in finding both skilled and unskilled people across all sectors.

"Given the extent of labour shortages in a range of industries, arguably even if there was some moderation in activity and continued slowing in growth, as we expect, in the coming year, it may take quite some time before that leads to any easing in the pressures on the labour market, after such a strong run in the past couple of years," he said.

The unemployment rate is 4.4 per cent, the lowest for 16 years.

"The provincial areas have been more mixed but the fact that they still generally remain at or above job ad levels prevailing 12 months ago would suggest that even if there is some impact from weaker export returns."