Kiwis click to online job sites

Any remaining doubts about New Zealanders' openness to online recruitment appear to be dispelled by the latest data from Nielsen//NetRatings.

Nzjobs.co.nz secured its position as the leading online recruitment site, though monster.com.au is clearly building a strong local presence. Another online growth sector is banking and finance.

In July, 20 per cent of Kiwi surfers visited banking/finance domains, up from 13 per cent in June.

This coincides with the arrival of prime mover westpactrust.co.nz, which after launching in June has become the 48th most visited domain overall, and fourth most popular banking and finance site.

The rapid acceleration suggests strong demand in an as-yet underserved market.

Other sectors growing quickly include classifieds, with trade-exchange.co.nz recording a strong showing to make it on to the table in its first month.

Netclassifieds.co.nz is also attracting a steady following.

The Vodafone property was propelled into a strong position by aggressive advertising and the popularity of text-messaging.

INLs news service stuff.co.nz has rapidly become a compelling proposition for Kiwi surfers.

After launching in late June it now ranks as the 12th most accessed New Zealand domain, providing genuine competition to other online news services.

Clear's free zfree.co.nz, launched in April, ranked as the third most popular provider for unique users behind heavyweights xtra.co.nz and ihug.co.nz.

Up one place from June, ihug.co.nz nudged into the top five local domains.

Elsewhere, the rankings of the highest-rating domains by unique audience held fairly steady.

A unique audience of 140,000 comfortably maintained Telecom's xtra.co.nz in first place in July, ahead of xtrasite.co.nz at 83,000 and govt.nz on 62,000 (at-home figures).