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EMPLOYMENT

Lead Employment Indicator Expects Moderate Growth But Online Job Vacancies Continue To Fall In October

Department of Labour

Wednesday 16 November 2011, 1:49PM

By Department of Labour

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There are signs that employment will grow by the end of the year although there has been a recent drop.

The Department’s quarterly Lead Employment Indicator - which is a combination of five different indicators that have historically been shown to lead changes in employment - fell by 0.3% during the September 2011 quarter after increasing for the previous seven quarters.

The Department’s head of Research and Analysis, Vasantha Krishnan, says that this will not indicate a downturn in employment over the coming year unless it is also negative in the December quarter.

“The indicator is still anticipating moderate employment growth of about 0.3% in the December quarter and between 0.2% and 0.5% in the following two quarters”.

Separate analysis by the Department shows that the number of skilled job vacancies advertised online fell last month by 3.3%. Job vacancies overall dropped by 4.5%.

Of the main industry groups, the industry with the only growth nationally was hospitality and tourism, with vacancies up by 3.4% following increased activity flowing from the Rugby World Cup.

The South Island (excluding Canterbury) region had the strongest regional growth in skilled job vacancies, with demand for skilled workers up by 2.0% in the last month.

But the growth in online job vacancies has been positive over the past year, with skilled job vacancies rising by 10.2% and all job vacancies up by 9.4%.