The job market's tough, but these roles are still in high demand
One job stands out as being in particularly high demand in the tough job market.
Latest Stats NZ data shows the number of filled jobs increased 0.2% in August, with increases across the primary, manufacturing and service sectors, and across Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury.
But total jobs are still down 0.7% on a year ago, with New Zealand losing more than 10,000 construction jobs, more than 5000 professional service jobs and almost 5000 healthcare and social assistance jobs over the past year.
New data from employment platform Seek shows some jobs are still in high demand, with sales account managers the most advertised role by far.
Sales business development managers, accountants, electricians, community support workers, nurses and administrative officers are also in high demand.
Retail sales assistants, chefs and retail store managers also feature in the top 10.
Seek senior economist Blair Chapman said there was a clear need for aged care and disability workers.
“With an estimated 7.5% of Kiwis now over the age of 75, and around another 9% over the age of 65, support workers and nurses are likely to remain in-demand for some time as the demand for care from these older Kiwis grows.”
Chapman said another key factor was the resurgence in tourism, particularly the rise in Australian visitors in recent months.
“The growth in tourism is supporting demand for chefs and retail workers. Despite the overall weakness in the New Zealand economy, household consumption has continued to grow, which is also supporting demand for chefs and retail workers.”
Seek recently reported a 4% annual rise in job ads – the first year-on-year increase in almost three years.
However, applications per job have also reached a record high and advertised salaries have increased below the rate of inflation over the past year.
ASB economists have noted the recent rise in filled jobs in the Stats NZ figures reflects a downward revision of job figures from previous months.
“There is still significant spare capacity in the labour market, and it will take a concerted period of strong growth to push the unemployment rate down to the 4-4.5% goldilocks zone,” they said.
Top 10 most in-demand roles in New Zealand in 2025, based on job ad volume on Seek on September 24, 2025, and the number of job ads for each
=================================================
Sales account manager – 3533
Sales business development manager – 2568
Accountant – 2339
Electrician – 2153
Community services & development support worker – 1863
Nurse – 1854
Administration officer – 1460
Retail sales assistant – 1285
Chef – 1157
Retail store manager – 1016
=======================================================
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Time to Tickle Your Thinker 🧠
If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
Do you think you know the answer? Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm on the day!
Want to stop seeing these in your newsfeed? No worries! Simply head here and click once on the Following button.
Poll: As a customer, what do you think about automation?
The Press investigates the growing reliance on your unpaid labour.
Automation (or the “unpaid shift”) is often described as efficient ... but it tends to benefit employers more than consumers.
We want to know: What do you think about automation?
Are you for, or against?
-
9.5% For. Self-service is less frustrating and convenient.
-
43.4% I want to be able to choose.
-
47.1% Against. I want to deal with people.
Loading…
