SEEK Employment Dashboard, April 2025
This report includes the seasonally adjusted data as well as the trend data. Where not otherwise specified, the commentary, figures and tables in this report refer to the seasonally adjusted data. See notes 2 and 3 at bottom for more information about the difference between the two data sets.
* Applications per job ad are recorded with a one-month lag. Data shown in this report refers to March data.
National insights
Job ads rose1% m/m, marking the fourth month of growth this year.
The annual rate of decline is at its lowest since December 2022.
Region insights
Solid growth in some of the larger regions such as Auckland (3%) and Waikato (4%) drove the national increase in ad volume m/m.
Otago (1%) and Tasman (4%) are among a handful of the regions that have recorded y/y job ad growth.
Industry insights
A 10% jump in demand for Retail & Consumer Products workers made it a standout growth industry in April.
Information & Communication Technology ad volumes have grown 7% m/m and y/y.
Rob Clark, SEEK NZ Country Manager, says:
“It is encouraging to see a second month of positive momentum, suggesting a modest but notable recovery pattern over the past seven or so months.
“There has been welcome growth in some high-skilled industries of late, including a 15% jump in Design & Architecture and a 7% boost to Information & Communications Technology in April, on top of longer-term growth, pointing to returning business confidence in some skilled sectors.
"While we remain cautiously optimistic about these signs of improvement, we know that businesses are still navigating economic uncertainty, as reflected in the ongoing year-on-year decline. However, the recent trend suggests we may be at a stabilising point in the employment market."
National trends
Job ads grew 1% for a second month, marking the first consecutive months of growth in almost two years.
Ad volumes are now down 10% y/y. This is the slowest rate of decline since late 2022 and demonstrates a stabilisation, particularly over the past seven months, after close to two years of steady decline.
Applications per job ad dropped 3% from the month prior – the first decline since November – likely in reaction to the increased ad volume in the market.
Figure 1: National SEEK job ad change over time – April 2021 to April 2025. Index = 100 (2013 average)
Figure 2: National SEEK job ad percentage change m/m (April 2024 to April 2025)
Region trends
Manawatu recorded the largest rise in job ads m/m, jumping 10% from March. This is the most significant increase for the region since mid-2024.
Auckland (3%), Waikato (4%) and Otago (5%) also recorded robust job ad growth m/m, and were the biggest contributors to the national increase in ad volumes m/m. After both rose in March, Wellington & Canterbury remained steady in April.
Applications per job ad decreased in most regions m/m, with the most significant drops in Marlborough (-13%), Northland (-12%) and Canterbury (-11%). Manawatu was the only region where applications per ad increased m/m (3%).
Table 1: National and regional job ad growth/decline: i) m/m and ii) y/y
Figure 3: National SEEK job ad change by major region - April 2021 to April 2025. Index = 100 (2013 average)
Figure 4: National SEEK job ad percentage change by region (April 2025 vs March 2025)
Industry trends
There was broad-based growth in April, with 21 out of 28 industries recording m/m increases in ad volume. Consumer-facing sectors like Retail & Consumer Products (10%) and Sales (8%) showed particularly strong momentum.
Information & Communication Technology jumped 7% m/m and is now 7% higher y/y. There has been fairly consistent growth in this industry since November, albeit from a very low base after two years of significant decline.
Healthcare & Medical was among the industries to decline m/m (-3%) and has experienced some of the largest decline annually (-20%), behind only Engineering (-25% y/y) and Insurance and Superannuation (-25% y/y).
Figure 5: National SEEK Job Ad percentage change by industry (April 2025 vs March 2025) – Ordered by job ad volume
About the SEEK Employment Report
The SEEK Employment Report is Australia’s leading employment index and provides a comprehensive overview of the Australian Employment Marketplace. The report includes the SEEK Employment Index (SEI) which measures only new job ads posted within the reported month to provide a clean measure of demand for labour across all classifications.
Notes:
(1) The SEI may differ to the job ad count on SEEK’s website due to a number of factors including: a) seasonal adjustments applied to the SEI; b) the exclusion of duplicated job ads from the SEI; and c) the exclusion of Company Listings (included under Company Profiles) from the SEI.
(2) Seasonally Adjusted figures remove regular calendar-related patterns from the data (e.g. Christmas holiday period). The seasonal adjustment is applied by a statistical model widely used by official statisticians. This helps show month-to-month changes without seasonal distortions.
(3) Trend figures go a step further by applying a weighted moving average to the seasonal adjusted figures (using a 13-term Henderson moving average) to smooth out short term fluctuations and noise. The trend numbers help identify the longer-term direction by filtering out both seasonal effects and short-term volatility.
(4) Caution is recommended when interpreting month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks. trend estimates during the COVID period as large month-to-month changes in variables generated multiple trend breaks.
(5) The applications per ad index contains a series break at Jan 2016 when the calculation of this series changed from using gross variables (inclusive of all SEEK job listings) to net variables (removing duplicate job listings). This change has a negligible impact on recent data points, but caution is recommended when interpreting data immediately following the series break, and particularly in 2016 rates have not been adjusted for the series break.
Disclaimer: The Data should be viewed and regarded as standalone information and should not be aggregated with any other information whether such information has been previously provided by SEEK Limited, ("SEEK"). The Data is given in summary form and whilst care has been taken in its preparation, SEEK makes no representations whatsoever about its completeness or accuracy. SEEK expressly bears no responsibility or liability for any reliance placed by you on the Data, or from the use of the Data by you.