Press Release – SEEK
Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager says It is encouraging to see a second month of positive momentum, suggesting a modest but notable recovery pattern over the past seven or so months.”
National Insights:
- Job ads rose 1% m/m, marking the fourth month of growth this year.
- The annual rate of decline is at its lowest since December 2022.
Region Insights:
- Solid growth in some of the larger regions such as Auckland (3%) and Waikato (4%) drove the national increase in ad volume m/m.
- Otago (1%) and Tasman (4%) are among a handful of the regions that have recorded y/y job ad growth.
Industry Insights:
- A 10% jump in demand for Retail & Consumer Products workers made it a standout growth industry in April.
- Information & Communication Technology ad volumes have grown 7% m/m and y/y.
Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager says
“It is encouraging to see a second month of positive momentum, suggesting a modest but notable recovery pattern over the past seven or so months.
“There has been welcome growth in some high-skilled industries of late, including a 15% jump in Design & Architecture and a 7% boost to Information & Communications Technology in April, on top of longer-term growth, pointing to returning business confidence in some skilled sectors.
“While we remain cautiously optimistic about these signs of improvement, we know that businesses are still navigating economic uncertainty, as reflected in the ongoing year-on-year decline. However, the recent trend suggests we may be at a stabilising point in the employment market.”
National Trends
Job ads grew 1% for a second month, marking the first consecutive months of growth in almost two years.
Ad volumes are now down 10% y/y. This is the slowest rate of decline since late 2022 and demonstrates a stabilisation, particularly over the past seven months, after close to two years of steady decline.
Applications per job ad dropped 3% from the month prior – the first decline since November – likely in reaction to the increased ad volume in the market.
Figure 1: National SEEK job ad change over time – April 2021 to April 2025. Index = 100 (2013 average)
Figure 2: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m (April 2024 to April 2025)
Region Trends
Manawatu recorded the largest rise in job ads m/m, jumping 10% from March. This is the most significant increase for the region since mid-2024.
Auckland (3%), Waikato (4%) and Otago (5%) also recorded robust job ad growth m/m, and were the biggest contributors to the national increase in ad volumes m/m. After both rose in March, Wellington & Canterbury remained steady in April.
Applications per job ad decreased in most regions m/m, with the most significant drops in Marlborough (-13%), Northland (-12%) and Canterbury (-11%). Manawatu was the only region where applications per ad increased m/m (3%).
Table 1: National and regional job ad growth/decline: i) m/m and ii) y/y
Figure 3: National SEEK job ad change by major region – April 2021 to April 2025
Figure 4: National SEEK job ad percentage change by region (April 2025 vs March 2025)
Industry Trends
There was broad-based growth in April, with 21 out of 28 industries recording m/m increases in ad volume. Consumer-facing sectors like Retail & Consumer Products (10%) and Sales (8%) showed particularly strong momentum.
Information & Communication Technology jumped 7% m/m and is now 7% higher y/y. There has been fairly consistent growth in this industry since November, albeit from a very low base after two years of significant decline.
Healthcare & Medical was among the industries to decline m/m (-3%) and has experienced some of the largest decline annually (-20%), behind only Engineering (-25% y/y) and Insurance and Superannuation (-25% y/y).
Figure 5: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (April 2025 vs March 2025) – Ordered by job ad volume
About SEEK NZ
SEEK has been helping New Zealanders live more fulfilling and productive working lives since 1999.
SEEK is a market leader in online employment marketplaces that span eight countries across Asia Pacific. SEEK makes a positive contribution to people’s lives on a global scale.
About the SEEK New Zealand Employment Report
The SEEK Employment Report is New Zealand’s leading employment index and provides a comprehensive overview of the New Zealand Employment Marketplace. The report includes the SEEK Employment Index (SEI) which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications.
Notes:
(1) The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including: a) seasonal adjustments applied to the SEI; b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI; and c) the exclusion of Company Listings (included under Company Profiles) from the SEI.
(2) Seasonally Adjusted figures remove regular calendar-related patterns from the data (e.g. Christmas holiday period). The seasonal adjustment is applied by a statistical model widely used by official statisticians. This helps show month-to-month changes without seasonal distortions.
(3) Trend figures go a step further by applying a weighted moving average to the seasonal adjusted figures (using a 13-term Henderson moving average) to smooth out short term fluctuations and noise. The trend numbers help identify the longer-term direction by filtering out both seasonal effects and short-term volatility.
(4) Caution is recommended when interpreting month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks. trend estimates during the COVID period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks.
(5) The applications per ad index contains a series break at Jan 2016 when the calculation of this series changed from using gross variables (inclusive of all SEEK job listings) to net variables (removing duplicate job listings). This change has a negligible impact on recent data points, but caution is recommended when interpreting data immediately following the series break, and particularly in 2016 rates have not been adjusted for the series break.
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
Original url
