Record numbers of people chasing a dwindling number of jobs
Job ads on Seek have fallen by 2 percent in May on April. (File photo)
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Record numbers of people are chasing a dwindling number of jobs, while wage rises are barely keeping pace with inflation, according to Seek.
The online employment platform's May monthly report showed a fall in the number of jobs advertised, albeit at the slowest rate in more than two years.
Seek country manager Rob Clark said the employment market felt like it was bumping along the bottom of the cycle, and while things were not getting better they were also not getting appreciably worse.
"The comfort we can take is that we were seeing quite steady declines and now we're seeing a period of some stable results what most people are looking for are some signs of an improvement, but we're not really seeing any signs of that at the moment."
Three regions had a rise in job adverts, with Wellington up 2 percent for the year ended May, its first rise in more than two years, Taranaki volumes rose 6 percent, and Southland up 1 percent, which were partly offset by sizeable falls in Auckland, Otago and Manawatū.
Most industries recorded fewer adverts, but healthcare and medical, community services, and consulting had solid rises, while consumer facing industries gave up recent gains, and information and technology had a sharp contraction.
Clark said the increase in consulting jobs might point to the use of short term roles to fill specific gaps without having to hire full time staff.
Salaries edged higher in the three months ended May, but on an annual basis the growth slowed to pre-Covid levels of 2.4 percent, just below the rate of inflation.
"When we have what is called a candidate-long market - more candidates than opportunities - then we typically see a slowdown in salary growth and that's exactly what we're seeing," Clark said.
"Overall we have a market that remains very subdued, but it's not getting any worse, but it's not getting any better at a rapid rate either."
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