Over the year to December, skilled job vacancies increased in most industry groups says the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) December jobs online report.
Truck, tourism bus, and heavy equipment suppliers will be pleased to hear that the biggest increases nationally were in the construction and engineering (up 16.5%) and hospitality and tourism (up 14.9%) industries.
Construction and engineering vacancies in Canterbury increased by 16.8% during 2014 says the MBIE report – no doubt due to more building recovery projects coming on line.
Over the last year, the number of skilled vacancies increased in eight out of ten regions. The biggest increases were in Bay of Plenty (up 20.6%), Otago/Southland (up 11.2%) and Auckland (up 10.3%).
Skilled vacancies fell in Wellington (down 4.3%) and Northland (down 1.0%).
A December increase of 1.1% in skilled vacancies online was led by increases in the healthcare and medical industry and in the technicians and trades occupation group.
The trend for all vacancies grew by 0.8% in December.
In 2014, vacancies grew for both skilled and all vacancies, up 7.4% and 8.4%, respectively says the MBIE jobs online report.
According to the ANZ Business Outlook business confidence is still elevated, despite a slight dip in December. A net 20% of businesses expect to be hiring more staff over the year ahead, unchanged on the month prior.
In December, skilled job vacancies increased in most industry groups. The biggest increase was in the healthcare and medical industry (up 1.1 per cent), while the remaining industries showed a modest increase.
Online vacancies for technicians and trades workers grew by 2.4%, while managers and professionals both grew by 0.9%.
MBIE says during 2014 the fastest growing occupations were (for managers): call or contact centre and customer service managers; (for professionals): actuaries, mathematicians and statisticians; and (for technicians and trades): cabinetmakers.
