Skills are key in rising job market

Job listings are up in Hawke's Bay, as demand for skilled workers remains high. Trade Me Jobs data for the July-September quarter shows job listings in Hastings were up 22 per cent compared with the same period last year, with 482 listings, while listings in Napier were up 10 per cent at 457. Healthcare and transport were Hastings' biggest movers, while hospitality and retail were highlighted as the biggest drivers of growth in Napier. Pipeline Recruitment director Ian Beattie said there were a lot of jobs advertised for skilled workers. "We're still filling a lot of roles in Hawke's Bay in accounting, IT, engineering, in those areas where there still appears to be big demand for skilled people." However, the lift could also be partly due to the increasing number of businesses advertising online instead of in the newspaper, he said. Nationally, the employment market enjoyed solid growth in almost every region, with listings in the three months to September up 16.4 per cent on the same quarter last year. Construction and architecture roles on Trade Me were up 41 per cent, property up 40 per cent and agriculture up 29 per cent - marking the three strongest areas of growth nationwide. Trade Me Jobs head Peter Osborne said growth during the quarter was in the double digits in most areas. "It's been wonderful to see job ad numbers go from strength to strength for a whole year now, and most of New Zealand has benefited from the ongoing trend. "It's interesting to see the average number of applications has dipped, meaning that all things being equal, it would have been slightly easier for people to find work over recent months." While this was "great news" for job hunters, the slump in applications made it tough for advertisers to find staff. Job listings in the three main centres were "full steam ahead", Mr Osborne said. "We've become used to Auckland maintaining trajectory, and there's no change on that front with job ads rising 18 per cent year-on-year. The recent top form of Wellington, up 13 per cent, and Canterbury up 15 per cent, hasn't abated either." Nelson/Tasman was up 12.5 per cent, Otago 30 per cent and Southland up 32 per cent, with the biggest lift in Marlborough, where listings were up a "stellar" 54 per cent. Only Gisborne and Taranaki experienced a fall in listings, dropping 10.7 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively. Mr Osborne said ongoing demand for skilled technology workers was "as strong as ever" but a skills shortage made vacancies difficult to fill. "Its ads went up 20 per cent year on year, but some of our advertisers say they simply can't find the staff to fill them. "While it's blue skies for qualified IT boffins negotiating a good package for employers, finding quality staff is proving a real challenge." According to online employment marketplace SEEK, new job listings for Hawke's Bay were higher in August by 22 per cent compared with figures at the same time last year, leading some of the highest growth in the country. SEEK New Zealand general manager Janet Faulding said the volume of new job ads nationwide was much higher than a year ago. "The most significant rise in the last 12 months has been New Zealand's farming industry, with new job ads up 83 per cent." Oct 5, 2014 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11337008