Job growth is unlikely to have returned in the March quarter, a new survey suggests.
The Westpac McDermott Miller employment confidence index, published today, edged down 0.7 points to 103.6 in the March quarter. An index above 100 indicates optimists outnumber pessimists.
A net 60 percent of respondents said jobs were hard to get, up from 59.4 percent in December, while a net 14.2 percent said they were earning more than a year ago, down from 15 percent.
As a result, the current conditions index fell slightly from 77.8 percent in the December quarter to 77.1 in the March quarter.
Westpac economists Brendan O'Donovan and Donna Purdue said there was little doubt the lingering effects of the 2008/09 recession continued to weigh heavily on the New Zealand labour market.
"By implication, it seems unlikely that jobs growth returned in the March 2010 quarter," they said.
The number of respondents expecting job opportunities to be plentiful in a year fell to a net 14.3 percent, from the record 16.6 percent in the December survey.
Perceived job security during the coming year fell during the quarter, from a net 13.2 percent in December, to a net 11.6 percent now, but a net 38.1 percent expected to be earning more next year, up from a net 36.2 percent.
