Jobs Online quarterly report September 2019

Online job advertisements increased by 0.3 per cent in the September 2019 quarter, compared to the June 2019 quarter’s fall of 1.4 per cent. The increase was the result of job advertisements over the September 2019 quarter in the Sales, Business services, Primary and Education industries.

The greatest increase in online advertising over the quarter came from Community & personal services and Labourers occupation groups.

Over the quarter, the main growth areas were in Nelson/Tasman/Marlborough/West Coast, Waikato and Wellington.

Job advertisements over the year, since September 2018, fell by 1.0 per cent. Over this period, IT was the only industry to increase. Over the year, Gisborne/Hawke's Bay and Wellington were the main growth regions, partially offsetting the decreases in Northland, Canterbury and Auckland.

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Background

Since July 2019, The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Jobs Online data series is published quarterly.

Jobs Online is a regular data series that measures changes in online job advertisements from four internet job boards — Seek, Trade Me Jobs, Education Gazette and Kiwi Health Jobs.

Job vacancies are an important indicator of labour demand and changes in the economy.

The relationship between job advertisements and labour demand is complex, particularly when disaggregated at an industry, occupation and regional level. For example, an increase in job advertisements by a particular industry may indicate:
• the industry is expanding and looking for new workers, or
• the industry has a high rate of churn (workers are moving between businesses, but overall employment is not necessarily increasing).

Likewise, declining job advertising can signal:
• reduced headcount in an industry, or
• the industry is using alternatives to advertising in their hiring process (such as word-of-mouth or social networks).

With these caveats in mind, data from Jobs Online tracks well with other labour market indicators, such as the unemployment rate.

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