SEEK Advertised Salary Index - February

NATIONAL ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

• Advertised salary growth rose by 0.7% q/q.
• Annual advertised salary growth slowed to 2.6% y/y in February, with the rate of decline slowing in the most recent quarter.

REGIONAL ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

• Quarterly average advertised salary growth was fastest in Auckland at 0.9% q/q, with growth in Wellington below the other major metro regions at 0.5% q/q.
• Outside of Wellington, the annual pace of advertised salary growth for the rest of the South Island (outside of Canterbury) has been particularly slow at 0.5% y/y, declining 4.6 percentage points since the same time last year.

INDUSTRY ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

• Over the last 12 months, advertised salaries in Science & Technology grew the fastest at 7.0% y/y.
• Advertising, Arts & Media is the only industry to have experienced a notable decline in advertised salaries over the past year (-1.4% y/y).

SEEK NZ Country Manager, Rob Clark, says:

“Annual average advertised salary growth continues to slow but remains above inflation.

“Despite having some of the more robust labour markets over 2024, advertised salary growth has slowed more notably in the more regional parts of the South Island.

“Slower advertised salary growth in some of the largest industries is dragging down the national average, with some smaller industries like Science & Technology growing much faster.”

NATIONAL ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

Advertised salaries rose by 0.7% q/q, after a period of slower growth in mid to late 2024. This quarterly growth is down on the 1.0% q/q recorded in February 2024.

Annual advertised salary growth continued slowing to 2.6% y/y in February and is now growing at just over half the annual rate recorded at its peak in 2023 (5.1%). Despite this slowing, growth remains faster than inflation, which was 2.2% over the year to December 2024.

Figure 2: Year-on-year growth of SEEK Advertised Salary Index

REGIONAL ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

Over the past quarter advertised salaries grew the fastest in Auckland (0.9% q/q), slightly faster than advertised salaries in Canterbury (0.8% q/q) and the Rest of the North Island (0.7% q/q). In contrast, recent quarterly advertised salary growth has been slower in Wellington (0.5% q/q) and the Rest of the South Island (0.1% q/q).

The recent slow growth outside of Canterbury on the South Island has resulted in a slowing of annual advertised salary growth to 0.5% y/y from its peak of 6.4% y/y in August 2023. This comes despite the South Island having some of the most robust labour markets over 2024.

Annual advertised salary growth was slower in Wellington (2.5% y/y) than the other major metro areas.

Table 1: SEEK Advertised Salary Index growth by region

Figure 3: Year-on-year growth of SEEK Advertised Salary Index by region

INDUSTRY ADVERTISED SALARY TRENDS

Advertised salary growth in the Science & Technology industry was the fastest at 7.0% y/y, although Sport & Recreation wasn’t too far behind (6.5% y/y) with the fastest quarterly advertised salary growth of 2.1% q/q.

The Advertising, Arts & Media industry had back-to-back quarterly declines in advertised salaries resulting in an annual decline of 1.7% y/y. Although Human Resources & Recruitment also experienced back-to-back quarterly declines in advertised salaries, they were much more muted and only resulted in an annual decline in advertised salaries of 0.2% y/y.

Since February 2020 advertised salaries have grown in all industries except Advertising, Arts & Media (-0.6%). Over that period advertised salaries have increased the most in the relatively small Mining, Resources & Energy industry, with the much larger Healthcare & Medical having the second largest increase in advertised salaries.

Table 2: SEEK Advertised Salary Index growth by industry

Notes -

More information about how the SEEK NZ ASI is put together and the current data can be found here (https://www.seek.co.nz/about/news/article/employment-and-salary-data)

When reporting SEEK data, we request that you attribute SEEK NZ as the source and refer to SEEK as an employment marketplace.

Commentary relating to the SEEK NZ Advertised Salary Index can be attributed to Rob Clark, SEEK Country Manager.

About the SEEK NZ Advertised Salary Index (ASI)

The SEEK NZ ASI measures the change in advertised salaries over time for jobs posted on SEEK in New Zealand, removing much of the effect of compositional change. The SEEK NZ ASI is a complement to existing data about the growth in wages and salaries in New Zealand, including Stats NZ’s Labour Cost Index (LCI). The LCI is a measure of the pace of wages growth across the economy. The SEEK NZ ASI provides a timely and frequent read on the pulse of advertised salary growth in New Zealand for vacant roles.

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