New job ads posted on the job board Seek New Zealand jumped by 55% in March 2021 when compared to March 2020, the month that saw the Covid-19 pandemic begin to impact the jobs market.

Janet Faulding, General Manager, SEEK NZ, said, “March 2021 paints a very different picture to March 2020, when the Covid-19 outbreak made its presence felt on the New Zealand labour market, with jobs ads dropping from mid-March. We are now a year on, and we’re thrilled to see the highest number of jobs ever advertised on seek.co.nz. Job ads are up 55% year-on-year, and 11% more than February 2021.

“The massive growth in job ads shows how far we’ve come as a nation,” Faulding said. “It’s great to see that after 12 months of slow, steady progress, Aotearoa (New Zealand) has recovered and even surpassed pre-Covid levels.”

Seek’s report also showed the biggest rise in month-on-month performance since June last year with an 11% national growth in jobs advertised in March 2021.

The Canterbury region saw job ads growth of 60% year-on-year in March 2021.

“Despite the week-long Level 3 Lockdown in Auckland at the start of March, we can’t see any long-term effects to the job market through the rest of the month,” Faulding added. “Although the lockdown impacted the Auckland region the most, we still saw significant growth in Auckland and the surrounding areas. In fact, four of the top seven regions were Auckland, Waikato, Northland and Bay of Plenty.”

“One of the knock-on effects of high job ad numbers is that applications per job ad ratio fall,” Faulding said. “In February, applications per ad dropped 7% month-on-month. As well as the increase in job ads, there are likely many other reasons contributing to this decline such as: a reduced labour supply impacting the ability to fill roles and workers displaying a more cautious approach to career moves following a turbulent year.”

On a month-to-month basis, the public-facing sectors experienced the most growth in March. Hospitality & tourism showed one of the biggest increases from February 2021 with a 32% increase, while retail & consumer products grew 29%.