Experts weigh in on the 2023 job market and offer advice for employees and employers

The 2023 job market is expected to remain candidate-driven, with flexible start times or the ability to work from home just some of the ways employers can put their best foot forward when advertising vacancies, experts say.

It comes as one recruiter expects there to be little impact if there’s a recession, and a local consultancy company says reduced work hours have resulted in increased wellbeing.

There was an increase of 1983 jobs filled in the Bay of Plenty between November 2021 and November 2022, Stats NZ’s latest employment figures showed.

Across the country, the public administration and safety industry had the biggest increase in filled jobs, 8394, while agriculture, forestry and fishing had the biggest decrease, 5727.

Personnel Resources Bay of Plenty area manager Angelique Scott said it had been “inundated” with new roles and had a “record number” of CVs received, with many looking for a change in career.

“The new year usually sparks people to think about their life, their job, etc; this means we will get quite a few calls from people saying, ‘I think I’m ready for a change’.

“[This is] music to our ears - we are happy to chat with people and [look at] potential jobs we have on our books to see if any suit their background.”

Personnel Resources Bay of Plenty area manager Angelique Scott.

OneStaff regional manager Matt Groucott said the 2023 job market was “likely to be very similar” to 2022.

He thought it would still be candidate-driven, and a lesson employers could learn was that if they had good staff, to look after them, because the cost of replacing staff was “huge”.

Increasing income was not the only way to hold on to talent - employers could look at things like flexible work arrangements and learning and development opportunities.

“There is still a high demand for workers from industry and a lack of available candidates,” Groucott said.

“Like 2022, we are likely to see businesses fighting it out for the same talent and employees capitalising on the current market to either move jobs for more money, better conditions or to leverage a better deal with their current employer.

“If we go into a recession, we may see the balance tip slightly, but the demand will likely still be there, and for that reason I believe we will not see large numbers of redundancies as we have in previous recessions, meaning there will still be candidate shortages across all industry.”

Madison Recruitment senior consultant Lisa McKerrow said employers understanding what potential employees wanted in a job could “make all the difference” to securing the right person.

“More and more candidates are looking for some flexibility with start times, or a work-from-home option one day per week etc, and while this isn’t always something employers can offer, the more an employer demonstrates some flexibility and additional benefits - even the small things can make all the difference to a candidate who could ultimately have multiple offers on the table.

“Marketing the benefits the employer can offer, including things like relocation assistance and birthdays off, could make all the difference if the role and package on offer is similar, and can give an employer a slight edge.”

She encouraged employers to be “more open to transferrable skills and value cross-sector experience”, but job-seekers’ best bets were to make sure their CVs clearly demonstrated they had the relevant skills and experience.

“Make it easy for [employers] to identify that you have the experience required for the role.

“We often see CVs come through for roles with specific skillset requirements, where there is no reference at all to these skills or duties in a previous role, yet when we interview the candidate, we find they have in fact undertaken tasks or responsibilities that align with the role.”

The job market eased towards the end of last year since record-level ad volumes in May 2022, according to Seek NZ’s November employment report, but Seek NZ country manager Rob Clark said volumes remained high compared to before the pandemic.

In the Bay of Plenty, healthcare and medical had the greatest growth of job ads last year, followed by hospitality and tourism, and manufacturing, transport and logistics.

Stratum Consultants decided to trial a 36-hour work week last year, finishing at noon each Friday while paying employees their full-time salaries.

Chief executive Mel Lewis said the trial came about after recognising the opportunity to create a point of difference among an “increasingly competitive market” for property professionals.

“When considering the various options, we kept coming back to the value of time,” Lewis said.

Stratum Consultants chief executive Mel Lewis.

“However, rather than just reducing our standard business hours to 36 across the week, we felt there would be a more meaningful benefit to our staff with closing the office at noon on a Friday.

“The Stratum team have busy lives outside of work, and being able to essentially gift a long weekend every weekend provided the biggest benefit to them personally, while meaning they could be refreshed and recharged the following week to provide high-quality professional services to our customers.”

Benefits to staff included spending more time with family or on reactional activities, which had a positive impact on their wellbeing.

Stratum Consultants, a land development and land utilisation consultancy firm, also experienced increases in applications for vacancies and were contacted often about roles in the future following the change.

Lewis said the biggest concern of the change was the impact on customers and the possible impact on performance - however, the results of the trial were surprising.

“There wasn’t a direct correlation on profitability with the reduced working hours, and we saw an uplift in productivity. Our customers had positive feedback and supported the initiative.

“While the reduced working week does have a cost to the business, the directors see the initiative as an investment in the health and wellness of our people and their families, which in the long-term supports better results for our customers and the business.”