KEY POINTS:
Thousands of people are flocking to construction and work sites as general labouring becomes the fastest-growing category of work this decade.
Workers are abandoning factories and office secretarial pools, as some job categories head for extinction.
Bernard Salt, a partner and director at KPMG in Melbourne, has studied New Zealand's job changes and found thousands more people classify themselves as labourers.
But those who pump petrol or take shorthand are finding decreasing demand for their skills.
Mr Salt took figures from Census 2001 and compared them to Census 2006 to identify changes in workforce trends.
Nationally, the workforce has grown fast. Mr Salt said an extra 258,510 people were employed between 2001 and 2006 - a 15 per cent increase. The 2001 Census found that there were 1,727,268 jobs in New Zealand. That had increased to 1,985,778 last year.
In the single fastest-growing category, 15,828 more people called themselves "general labourers" in last year's Census compared to 2001.
"This is connected to the property boom," he said.
Technical representatives recorded the second-fastest rate of growth, increasing by 14,781. Technical representatives showed others how to install or operate a piece of technical equipment, Mr Salt said, and were not hi-tech IT workers. Their numbers were growing because people needed more help to cope with technology, he said, whether with a plasma or LCD television or other hi-tech equipment.
Third-fastest growing job was administration manager - up by 12,693, followed by sales or marketing manager, up 9531, builder (including contractor), up 8625, sales assistant, up 8310, general manager, up 7878, machine tool operator, up 6471, computer applications engineer, up 5997, caregiver, up 5988.
"Technology, globalisation and construction are all driving job growth in New Zealand," said Mr Salt. "These jobs are being influenced by changes coming out of China or California."
The Department of Statistics said unemployment was just 3.7 per cent in the December quarter.
The job showing the fastest decline was that of automated machine operator. "These are people who work on conveyor belts or in manufacturing but their jobs are vanishing because this work is being out-sourced to China."
This category declined by 5952 between the two Census periods, followed by typist/word processor operator, down by 3882, secretary, down 3780, fruit grower, down 3303, forecourt attendant, down 2373, slaughterer, down 2241, nursery grower or worker, down 2010, nurse aide, down 1863, data entry operator, down 1839 and sewing machinist down 1803.
The trend
Fastest growing jobs
* General labourer
* Technical representative
* Administration manager
Fastest vanishing jobs
* Automated machine operator
* Typist/word processor
* Secretary
