Photo: 123RF
After about a year of job hunting in Wellington, communications experts Rebecca Thomson and Emily Turner have seen a lot.
Sometimes they apply for a job and get no response. Other times, the job remains advertised while interviews are happening.
In one case, applying for a three-month contract was to involve a full 45-minute interview, then a coffee chat – but then the advertiser decided not to fill the position.
“It feels pretty Hunger Games out there, sort of far more people than jobs, across the board,” Thomson said.
“It can be like a really bad dating situation,” Turner said. “It’s like permanently being ghosted from a very bad date, or not even a date because that would be the interview … it’s putting your best foot forward, doing some really good chat and banter and thinking it’s all going really well, and then nothing.”
Turner said she had about six interviews for roles, from about 20 applications. “I’ve got a very clear approach of what I’m applying for, I don’t do a sort of scatter gun approach, I apply for roles that I know I’ve got a clear go at getting.”
She said she had asked recruiters how many people were applying for senior communications roles and had been told that it could be 80 to 100.
Thomson said she had picked up freelance work along the way. “But in terms of full-time employment it’s been a year. We’re both highly skilled people that have worked on an array of projects and we’re not the only ones.”
The pair have started an informal network for Wellington job hunters, where people can get together to support each other and share tips and information about the employment market.
“We set it up to get to be somewhere where people can meet and have a chat in a casual, friendly environment,” Thomson said. “It’s tough out there and people are mentally finding it tough.”
Some people want advice on how to put mortgage payments on hold, how to cover the cost of car registration or body corporate fees without regular income, but other times the network might share details of jobs that might suit other people.
Thomson said from the initial meeting with two of them, their next meeting attracted eight.
Another meeting was planned for this week and more people were offering their support online.
“I’ve had a few DMs (direct messages) from people saying ‘I can’t come but this is great’,” Thomson said.
Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster at Infometrics, said it was unlikely the Wellington employment market would turn around soon.
“There’s certainly not any signs that any time soon the pressure from government is going to change on either employment numbers or departmental spending.
“Often what we’ve seen in the past, if we went back to the previous National government from 2008 onwards they had a sinking lid on employment, it was not as tough but reasonably tough, but at the same time they had a bit more room fiscally so there was more consulting work going on. This time the pressure is very much on both sides.”
Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan.
Photo: Supplied
He said the public sector crackdown was having a flow-on effect on the private sector in Wellington.
“It may be after 18 months we’re through the worst of it but it’s hard to see it turning around and employment picking up any time soon.”
The annual average unemployment rate in Wellington City was 4.8 percent in the year to March, up from 3.4 percent in the previous 12 months.
Kiernan said Wellington had previously had unemployment well below the national average but the gap had closed.
Jarrod Kerr, chief economist at Kiwibank, said he thought it could be six months before the Wellington situation improved, “but probably more like a year”.
“It’s the harsh reality of an RBNZ(Reserve Bank)-induced recession and significant cuts in the public sector. We forecast an improvement, which keeps getting delayed, by the end of the year, and we look into 2026 with more confidence.”
Thomson said anyone who wanted to join the network could find them on LinkedIn. “We wanted to keep it sort of friendly and open – people don’t have to join some page to be part of it … it’s a space to decompress and have a coffee or tea and chat with some like-minded people.”
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