New Zealand job advertisements on major employment site SEEK plummeted in May, a tell-tale sign of a tightening labour market.
SEEK NZ's latest monthly employment report, released on Tuesday, showed its total job advertisements dropped 5 percent in May compared to April.
Ads were also down 30 percent from a year ago and 25 percent lower than in May 2019.
The number of job advertisements in Wellington, home to many public sector roles impacted by Government spending cuts, declined 42 percent year-on-year and 3 percent month-on-month.
Bucking the trend, ads on the West Coast skyrocketed 39 percent in May.
"It is an incredibly tough labour market at the moment... with declining ad volumes in most regions and in all sectors," said Rob Clark, country manager at SEEK NZ.
The SEEK data showed the number of job applications per ad was 69 percent higher than the same time last year.
"Applications per job ad, which measures competition among candidates for vacant roles, did not grow or decline in April and remain exceptionally high," Clark said in a statement. "Applications per job ad increased in Auckland (2 percent) and Wellington (4 percent) but declined in Canterbury (-4 percent) and Otago (-9 percent)," the statement said.
Official employment data released last month showed the jobless rate at 4.3 percent. The Reserve Bank (RBNZ) believes unemployment could peak at about 5.1 percent in the middle of next year.
That's slightly lower than 2012, when unemployment peaked at 6.4 percent.
"The labour market is expected to ease further over this year as economic growth remains below potential," the RBNZ said in its May monetary policy statement.
"Employment fell in the March 2024 quarter and employment growth is expected to remain subdued over the next year."
