Our business support team came into the new calendar year revived and ready to go after a promising finish to 2020. Auckland did throw us one last little lockdown but it really just layered yet another level of resilience and adaptability into the team. The impacts of this lockdown were that SEEK job ads were down by 2 percent in February 2021 when compared to February 2020. However, Wellington and Canterbury experienced strong month-on-month job ad growth of 3 percent and 2 percent respectively. SEEK general manager, Janet Faulding said Auckland’s change to alert level 3 in February paused some employers’ hiring intentions but overall, the road to recovery remains strong.
“Year-on-year, job ad volumes were only 2 percent down, the smallest year-on-year difference in the past 12 months, suggesting sustained improvement to the national job market, “ she said.
March then saw more job ads on SEEK in this month than ever before. The latest SEEK Employment Report showed the biggest rise in m/m performance since June last year, with an 11 percent national growth in jobs advertised in March 2021. In addition to this strong m/m growth, new job ads also increased 55 percent for March 2021 compared to March the year before.
Internally at Tribe we saw a whopping 60 percent quarter-on-quarter increase of jobs across both temporary and permanent roles. However, we did also encounter a 14 percent decrease in our average permanent placement salary. This could be attributed to clients acting frugally when it comes to salaries based on the year that has been. We saw a 30 percent increase in our applications across our permanent roles with a minimal 6 percent increase in temporary applications.
The inevitable talent shortage
Therein lies our biggest challenge - the inevitable talent shortage, specifically within the temporary workforce. Candidates are preferring the security and stability of a permanent role at our level and within business support. With the borders remaining closed we just do not have access to the same volume of talent as we used to. Travellers heading to New Zealand on working holiday visas came with experience and skills relevant and suitable for temporary business support vacancies. Until those borders open up again we will be working smarter around our candidate experience, including attraction, retention and engagement within temp.
I think you'll agree as a whole this doesn’t make for bad reading and it's comforting to see Aotearoa continue to go from strength to strength in this post-Covid market.
Having managed and recruited into remote teams for years now, I’ll leave you with this stat that I found interesting (not to mention just another positive to come out of the year that was)...
Until next quarter!
BULLHORN GLOBAL RECRUITMENT INSIGHTS & DATA – APAC 2020
When asked what will be the largest long-term impact from COVID-19 on the staffing & recruitment industry at large?
"41 percent of respondents believe the largest consequence for the industry at large will be a rise in remote jobs for candidates. Many have reported placing candidates for positions that were previously believed to require in-person presence."
