Jobs growth slows for third month
Jobs growth continued to slow for the third month with jobs numbers down by 11% in February. Jobs numbers starting to slow back in January and is down 22% this year. The Hospitality sector recorded a drop of 59 roles advertised this month which is down 18% compared with February and 32% since the start of the year. By comparison jobs growth had been averaging 30% late in 2022. Anecdotally the application rate has increased as has the return of walk in’s looking for a role over the last month.
Queenstown’s jobs market trend is in line with national online numbers reported by the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment which show an overall decline in advertised online job advertisements nationally of 15.7% this year and 18% in the hospitality sector.
One area locally, where jobs growth is being recorded is in the demand for finance and admin roles, all be it off a slow base. This year has seen 75 roles advertised up from 24 the prior year.
March saw 581 roles advertised down from 656 in February.