New Zealand's job market is showing "encouraging" signs of momentum as job ads rose 1% in August for the third consecutive month, according to employment website Seek.
The site's New Zealand Employment Report for August 2025 revealed annual growth in job ads had reached 4%, marking the first time jobs have grown year-on-year since November 2022.
Applications per job ad also surged 2% in July, setting a record high.
Seek country manager Rob Clark told 1News that hiring activity had noticeably picked up this quarter, and said the results were "encouraging, but not a trend yet".
"There was increased activity across most industries and all of the larger regions in August. We have not seen such broad-based growth in a very long time.
He said industries such as Real Estate & Property and Design and Architecture had been increasing steadily for the past 13 months.
"So, that's encouraging. That often can be an early sign of more economic activity," he said.
"Similarly with real estate, it can be a bit of a canary industry. So, there's hope that those are early signs that there's going to be a bit more activity in the sort of flow through into construction, trades and services."
Key contributors to the overall rise in ad volumes in August was in Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics and Trades & Services.
Farming, Animals and Conservation and Government and Defence industries both recorded -1% month-on-month declines in job ads.
"So, the Government & Defence one is really that Wellington went through a pretty torrid time," he said. "So that's what I would describe as a bit of a 'bounce back' or recovery in that regard."
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Regional insights
Clark said Auckland had now recorded two months of rising ad volumes "which is good", but was one of the few main centres where job ads remained 2% lower than a year ago.
"We believe that's primarily because there's a stronger skew towards professional service roles in Auckland, and they have suffered a little more than some of the other industries," he said.
Otago, Wellington and Canterbury had all risen month-on-month and year-on-year.
Aside from Taranaki (-2% month-on-month) all regions recorded either no change – in the case of Waikato, Manawatū and Northland – or growth, leading to the national rise in ad volumes.
Regionally, Hawke's Bay recorded the biggest monthly increase at 4%, followed by Otago and West Coast which were both up 3%.
High demand for fewer roles
Clark said the number of applications relative to the number of job ads remained at "record highs".
"There's a lot of demand for fewer roles, you know, from a historical point of view," he said.
"That means for job seekers, it's really competitive out there. And that remains a challenge for them."
He said employers looking to bring on new talent had more options amongst applicants than previous years.
“So, for sort of semi-skilled roles, we see very high numbers of applications. Where you get the highest skilled roles, there has always and will typically be, a shortage of talent.”
He said there were still roles particularly in the specialist medical fields that were "hard to fill".
“But for the more sort of lower skilled or semi-skilled roles, you tend to have a higher number of applications relative to number of opportunities at the moment.”
He said, "generally speaking, people are optimistic in the medium term".
"But we have seen a period of protracted stasis, if you like, and not a lot of activity, so it's nice to see a little bit of a bounce."
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