Filled jobs across New Zealand in the December 2020 quarter fell by almost 1% or 19,000 jobs, compared with the December 2019 quarter, data from Stats NZ showed.

The fall is the first year-on-year fall since the PAYE-tax-based series began in June 2011 and it follows slowing growth in filled jobs in the September and June 2020 quarters.

Several tourist areas of the South Island and Auckland had large falls, while the rest of the North Island fared better. Filled jobs in the South Island were down 1.7% (8,659 jobs) in the December 2020 quarter when compared with December 2019.

The area with the largest percentage fall in filled jobs was the Queenstown-Lakes district: down 9.1% or approximately 2,000 jobs from December 2019. “Employment in the Queenstown-Lakes district has been heavily affected by the drop of overseas visitors since Covid-19 border restrictions came into place,” business insights manager Sue Chapman said.

Other tourist areas also saw declines in filled jobs. The North Island, where Auckland is located, saw filled jobs fall 0.6% from the December 2019 quarter. The main driver of this fall was Auckland which had close to 16,000 fewer jobs (2.1%). Excluding the Auckland region, North Island gained approximately 5,500 jobs, a 0.6% increase. Hawke’s Bay saw an increase of 1,800 jobs, up 2.5%

“This increase in job numbers occurred together with a 10 percent year-on-year spike in retail spending for the region,” Chapman said.