KEY POINTS:
Employment prospects continue to weaken, a new survey shows.
Manpower said its employment outlook survey of 770 employers across New Zealand found they intended to be cautious in hiring plans for the fourth quarter, particularly compared to survey results reported in recent quarters.
Manpower New Zealand general manager Catherine Lo-Giacco said the decline in jobs growth was being felt in many industries, particularly the public administration & education and mining & construction sectors - declining by 12 and 13 percentage points respectively.
Those sectors were at levels not seen since the New Zealand Manpower survey started in 2004.
New Zealand's recent strong economic downturn was weighing on the minds of employers, Ms Lo-Giacco said.
"They are not conducting widespread layoffs across industry sectors, which is encouraging, yet we are not seeing much appetite to add staff either."
The report said 23 per cent of employers expected to increase headcount, 14 per cent predicted a decrease and 62 per cent anticipated no change.
That gave a "cautiously optimistic" net employment outlook of +9 per cent.
The net employment outlook is the percentage of employers expecting total employment to increase, minus the percentage expecting a decrease.
Seasonally adjusted the national outlook for the fourth quarter is +10 per cent, down 5 percentage points from the previous quarter and down 16 points for the year.
The three regions surveyed all had their weakest outlook since regional analysis started four years ago, the survey said.
Auckland had an adjusted outlook of +9 per cent, down 2 points from the previous quarter and 21 points for the year.
In Christchurch the adjusted outlook was +10 per cent, down 3 points for the quarter, with a 13-point decline for the year.
Wellington's adjusted outlook was +15 per cent, down 4 points for the quarter and 12 points for the year.
- NZPA
