Employers upbeat on job outlook

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Nearly half of the country's employers expect to hire new staff in the next six months, says a survey.

The employers also say the "brain drain" of skilled staff going overseas is lessening as world economic conditions dip and New Zealanders find job-hunting abroad harder.

The upbeat outlook is outlined by the TMP (formerly Morgan and Banks) six-monthly Job Index Survey, released today.

The survey probes the expectations of hirers among TMP's 4500 clients - a customer list which includes the Bank of New Zealand, Telecom, the New Zealand Dairy Board and Air New Zealand.

Of the 1603 employers surveyed by telephone in May, 45.2 per cent were expecting to employ more people in the next six months, 3 per cent up on the previous survey.

Just 11.2 per cent planned to reduce staff numbers.

South Island employers recorded the highest levels of optimism, with 48.5 per cent of those surveyed expecting an increase in staff numbers.

Reductions were expected by 9.5 per cent.

TMP Worldwide strategy director Dr Kaye McAulay said employers were optimistic "about the fact that they will be getting out and looking for staff for positions."

"However, this level of optimism doesn't follow through necessarily to their economic confidence."

Small business owners were the most optimistic that they would expand their staff - for the sixth consecutive survey period.

Large employers with more than 200 staff were the only group to record a decline in optimism about permanent employment from the previous survey, especially in the lower North Island.

Three-quarters of employers said the brain drain appeared to be "stabilising" - they had fewer or, at worst, the same number of staff leaving for overseas posts.

Dr McAulay said this issue was crucial as the price of replacing an employee earning $120,000 could be more than $400,000 in recruitment costs and lost opportunities.

In the upper North Island - north of Taupo - 25.7 per cent of employers were losing more staff than in the past.

In the lower North Island, the comparative figure was 22.4 per cent.

"The industries most impacted by talented staff heading overseas to work were the legal industry, with employers from the advertising/marketing, retail and tourism industries least likely," said Dr McAulay.

"This coincides with active campaigns by British law firms to attract New Zealand lawyers."

More than 70 per cent of law firms indicated they had lost more staff to overseas jobs than in the past.

Dr McAulay predicted that a downturn in the Australian economy, the continuing crash of dotcoms in Europe and related global freezes on recruitment would drive many skilled workers home.