Work vacancies down 20%

Student enrolments are up 27% on last year‘s Orientation period yet vacancies continue to be down 20%

Monday 9th March 2009.

Student enrolments at SJS for work are up 27% on last year ‘s Orientation period yet vacancies continue to be down 20%. With less job opportunities over summer, SJS predicts more of the nation’s 450,000 tertiary students will be looking to supplement their study with part-time work in 2009.

To ensure students have the best chance at finding work, Student Job Search needs more work opportunities.

“Last year students weren’t as proactive at job hunting during their first two weeks of semester but this year they are. Students are filling vacancies almost as fast as they are listed at www.sjs.co.nz. Students are aware that there are less jobs around in this uncertain economic environment and they are being extremely proactive in response” reports Marketing and Communications Manager Lorna McConnon.

“Across the country we’ve had 5,533 students enroll with us in just the last three weeks versus 4,351 last year. In the Auckland region enrolments are up 48% on last year with 2,297 students having enrolled since mid-February.” Miss McConnon said.

SJS is a not-for-profit free employment service offering employers tertiary students with all kinds of skills willing to do all kinds of work since 1982. SJS is owned and governed by Student Associations and is the third largest income stream for tertiary students behind Student Loans and Student Allowances (SJS generates $82million of student earnings each year).

SJS fills over 30,000 vacancies each year and helps more than 25,000 students find work. The majority of jobs placed by SJS are in retail, hospitality, household and office/professional industries. Examples of the wide range of vacancies that are filled each year are; seasonal work such as fruit picking, IT staff, tutoring, child minding and gardening.

Regional breakdowns of enrolments

Region Orientation Enrolments 2009 vs. 2008
Auckland + 47.0%
Waikato + 21.3%
Manawatu /Hawke’s Bay +37.8%
Wellington -12.0%
Canterbury & Nelson/Marlborough +13.7%
Otago/Southland +14.7%

ENDS

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