Jobseekers flood employers

More than 1000 increasingly desperate jobseekers have applied for jobs with two Auckland employers who are still hiring in the recession.

Nutrimax, Australia's biggest homeware distributor which is opening new branches in New Zealand, has resorted to interviewing people in groups after receiving 1600 applications for 11 jobs for sales, delivery and office staff.

O-I, a multinational glassmaker which owns the former ACI bottle factory in Penrose, received almost 1200 applications for 38 jobs operating a new furnace it is building to cope with the demand for bottles from the country's booming wine industry.

"I was amazed at the number of tradespeople applying," said human resources manager Bruce Woodcock. He received 268 applications for jobs from people laid off mainly from the building and printing industries.

A Weekend Herald survey of 51 employers and recruitment agencies has found that in some areas this recession is biting harder than any in living memory.

NZ Labour Hire chief executive Vance Simpson, who has been in business 23 years, has had unemployed carpenters knocking on his door.

He said: "1991 was a tough year for us and funnily enough the year after the America's Cup, 2000, was a tough year but even then we didn't get a lot of carpenters - we're talking one to five every three months. At the moment we might have 10 a week."

The manager of a small Auckland cleaning company who has also been in business more than 20 years received 70 to 80 calls in response to a three-line classified advertisement for cleaners in Monday's Herald.

"We're still getting calls," he said on Wednesday. "I have never had a response like that and I've placed many ads before."

Malinda Shamley, who advertised a junior office assistant job at Ellerslie-based SPM Builders, received applications from people with university degrees.

"I'm getting a lot of overqualified people," she said. "We are looking for a very junior person. An overqualified person is just going to get bored."

Epsom brasserie Gee Gee's had more than 60 applicants, including former managers and graphic designers, for a job as a kitchenhand/cleaner.

Carmen Bailey of executive contracting agency Emergent said her high-end clients were having to be "far more flexible than they have ever been and I've been here 23 years".

"One person who was a high-flier marketer two years ago on huge money, $200,000, is looking at $130,000-$150,000 roles. It's a domino effect," she said.

However, the market is still patchy. Two retailers, a car dealer, a boarding house, a taxi company, a stable and a school looking for a groundsman reported no more calls than usual.

Andrew Kirkham of self-storage company Kennards said he had to advertise twice for an assistant centre manager's job after all the shortlisted candidates found other positions.

Greenpeace fundraising manager Igor Polakovic said he still had 15 vacancies for street fundraising jobs paying $16.50 to $20 an hour.

David Devereux of the Labour Exchange said there were even signs of a slight lift in the market this week. Only 14 jobseekers rang his firm on Wednesday, down from a recent average of 30 to 40 a day.

"I believe there is heaps of work out there," he said. "We couldn't put 10 guys a day on to jobs but we could probably offer work to half of them."