New Zealand jobs recover close to pre-pandemic levels

Job vacancies in New Zealand are recovering close to pre-pandemic levels, with sectors like IT and communications; trades and services; transport and logistics; and manufacturing posting the most vacancies.

However, jobs in customer-facing roles have suffered the hardest hits, based on the number of job postings on a New Zealand-based jobs portal. 

Metro areas such as Auckland are taking longer to see a full recovery as the city has a greater reliance on Professional Services and Consumer Services roles, it said.

The jobs recovery in the country follows after official data showed that New Zealand’s economy rebounded in the third quarter of 2020, growing 14% as massive fiscal and monetary stimulus boosted consumer spending. The figures were an improvement from the 11% drop suffered in the second quarter of 2020, which Statistics New Zealand has described as the strongest in New Zealand’s modern history, according to The Guardian. 

READ: New Zealand companies repay COVID-19 subsidies exceeding NZ$536 million

On Wednesday, the country’s health chief Ashley Bloomfield said that COVID-19 is unlikely to die out even with vaccination efforts, but the virus could be less deadly over time. 

As of Tuesday, there are 85 active COVID-19 cases in New Zealand, comprising returning travellers who are being quarantined. The country has had no community cases for two months.