The New Zealand Careers Expo has attracted young people looking at their next step after high school as well as older job seekers looking for a career change.
Photo: Supplied
For a growing number of us it is becoming a familiar routine.
Firing off the CV to a number of different job applications only to realise you are up against hundreds of other candidates.
Unemployment is at a four-year high at 5.1 percent and that means competition for work is tough.
There were 21,000 more people on the jobseeker benefit in May compared to last year bringing the total number of people currently on a jobseeker benefit to 213,831 according to the Ministry of Social Development’s latest monthly update.
This year’s New Zealand Careers Expo is expected to attract thousands of job hunters, not just on the hunt for a new job but also a new career.
On Tuesday, ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane were buzzing with budding young students and job hunters.
Forty industry organisations, education providers and potential employers were waiting for them inside the grounds.
Among them NZ Police, the army, Universities New Zealand, Pacific International Hotel Management School (PIHMS), and Seafood New Zealand.
One of those looking was Varshith Panaganti.
Panaganti completed his Masters in Information Technology and has been looking for a job in IT for the last four months while working part-time at KFC to pay his bills.
“It’s quite depressing my day is starting with rejections.”
He told Checkpoint he has applied for around 200 jobs in the last few months and was applying for about four roles a day.
The fierce fight to get work has led some people to start looking in new directions.
Forty industry organisations, education providers and potential employers are at the expo.
Photo: Supplied
NZ Careers Expo director Mark Gillard said there were a large cohort of young rangatahi who needed extra support due to Covid’s disruptions and rising youth unemployment to decide their next steps after high school.
Gillard said there was another group at the expo too, older workers flirting with a career change.
“For those that have been out in jobs that may not be meeting what they’re looking for, or the job might have changed quite a lot not just because of AI, but lots of innovation, lots of changes in the workforce there’s a lot of restructures going on, people are looking at what their options are.”
Dino Panganiban has been looking for work for several months.
“I’ve been applying through SEEK some LinkedIn work, but I really couldn’t find any job so far, no luck.
“I think there are only there are few openings like when you see the applicants there’re like at least 100 applicants. “
Dino is almost 50 and for most of his career he has worked in finance, but he is now considering other options after looking at the expo.
With his hands full of brochures, he told RNZ he would be going home to read them before he made a decision.
For year 13 students about to finish up their high school education, making a decision about what comes next can be daunting according to these students from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori O Mangere.
“I have just turned 18 like this weekend, and it just hit me that you know, whatever I chose is gonna be my main thing for my coming years, and it’s nerve wracking but also exciting at the same time just to picture me doing all this different stuff,” one student said.
Another agreed it was scary that their time at school was almost up.
“It’s like starting to hit hard that we’ve got to get on top of it, it’s stressful.”
Stressful it may be, but these rangatahi had somewhat of an idea of where they were heading.
“So far I’ve been looking at professional diving like free diving I’ve been wanting to get into a course in Christchurch,” one student said.
Another said they were interested in finance and accounting.
“I like math but then again, there’s AI accounting, so I might not be needed in the future so I’m still looking for different careers.”
One of the stall holders in need of more young people is the New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors.
Sabrina Arklie teaches surveying at Otago Polytechnic and said there was a shortage of surveyors nationwide.
“There’s always a requirement of quantity surveillance, so once you do the course, it’s an easy entry to get into the industry there’s around 400 to 600 jobs available.”
Over 3000 visitors were expected through the doors at the Auckland Careers Expo, which finishes at 2pm Wednesday, before the final event in Wellington at the TSB arena next Wednesday.
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