According to the inaugural Annual Jobs Report by global employment solutions provider Employment Hero, Otago recorded a 19.4% year-on-year employment growth in the market for SMEs over the past 12 months to July.
It was the "fastest-growing SME job market in the country" that year, the company said.
"Otago has emerged as an unexpected hotspot, fuelled by tourism recovery, agriculture and regional investment.
"This regional dynamism reflects broader global trends where smaller markets and non-capital cities are shouldering more of the employment rebound."
Employment growth in SMEs across the country was being driven by the South Island, which overall grew 5.4% year-on-year.
That is compared to 0.6% in the North Island.
Farra Engineering managing director Gareth Evans said it was finding the job market "much more positive" than what it had been, in terms of available people.
The company had about 110 full-time employees.
It was also still hiring, despite being constrained by the need for some very specialist skills.
It was not a surprise Otago was recovering a bit quicker than other regions coming out of a tough time, Mr Evans said.
"The strength here is that we don’t boom when everyone else booms, but we just steadily grow."
Businesses were creating jobs and more needed to be done to find ways to house and accommodate people.
"It’s one thing to have jobs, you need to have the infrastructure and housing to support that.
"I honestly think that’s the only thing holding us back."
While it was easy to dismiss the region as being driven by agriculture and tourism, Otago was experiencing a huge amount of growth across its manufacturing and technology sectors, Mr Evans said.
He knew of a lot of manufacturing businesses that were "consistently hiring".
"There’s a real entrepreneurial spirit down here.
"A lot of companies, while other people are watching economic headwaves and all of this, a lot of companies here are just putting their nose down and doing what they do."
