Consyl Publishing & Publicity Ltd

Consyl Publishing & Publicity Ltd

Home > Our Publications > New Zealand Outlook > 2008 > January

SKILLED STILL IN DEMAND

By Lawrence Johnston

SKILL shortages remain high, with firms continuing to report significant difficulty finding both skilled and unskilled staff.
That is the finding of the New Zealand government's September 'Skills in the Labour Market' report.
The report comes out monthly, but this time, as well as data from the Department of Labour's Job Vacancy Monitor (JVM), the report is able to highlight information on skill shortages, primarily drawn from the Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion (QSBO) conducted by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.
The nature and extent of skill shortages were both largely unchanged since the August Skills in the Labour Market report. Skill shortage indicators in the QSBO remained high in the September quarter, with firms continuing to report significant difficulty finding both skilled and unskilled staff.
And the unemployment rate fell to a new record low of 3.5 per cent in the September quarter and the participation rate dropped to 68.3 per cent.
With net permanent and long-term migration also falling in 2007, employers have had to recruit from a shrinking pool of available labour, and the number of people unemployed longer than six months fell to a 20-year low, the report said.
The JVM showed that there were one per cent more advertised job vacancies in the September quarter, than there were a year earlier.
The QSBO showed that a net 41 per cent of firms had difficulty finding skilled staff in the September quarter. This was similar to a net 42 per cent in the June quarter.
But firms had less difficulty finding unskilled staff than before, with a net 19 per cent of firms having difficulty in the September quarter, compared with a net 26 per cent in the June quarter.
A shortage of labour was the main constraint on expansion for a fifth of firms in the September quarter, a similar figure to the 19 per cent measured in the previous quarter.
The JVM showed a one per cent increase in advertised vacancies in New Zealand over the year to September, but among the major regions, vacancies in Auckland continued to fall, a fifth down, followed by Wellington, down nine per cent.
But there was an increase in vacancies for both highly skilled occupations and semi-skilled/elementary occupations over the year to September. And though there was a decline in vacancies for skilled occupations, the size of this annual decline, at one per cent, was minimal and the smallest for two and a half years.
As for the outlook, the labour market is expected to remain tight over the coming year. The unemployment rate is at a record low and is forecast to stay below four per cent in the coming year and a half. With labour in short supply, skill and labour shortages are set to remain at high levels over the coming year, the 'Skills in the Labour Market' report said.