Student Job Search Otago team leader Suzanne Te Au said there were fewer retail and hospitality sector jobs around in Dunedin this summer, but household work - including gardening - was proving a mainstay.
The rapid uptake of jobs was also proving "a bit of a coup for householders", enabling them to get work done more quickly, she said.
The use of more efficient technology was also contributing to the much faster turnaround of jobs.
The introduction in October last year of a free phone service - 0800 757-562 - had enabled students to use their cellphones to obtain employer contact details from the agency without incurring the usual cellphone charges.
More than 3000 Dunedin tertiary students have registered for work through the agency, which made 2642 job placements in Otago between October 1 and December 31 last year.
Student job search national marketing and communications manager Lorna McConnon, of Dunedin, said job offers to the organisation throughout the country had dropped about 20%, reflecting the uncertain economy.
Tertiary students were adopting a more flexible approach to job-hunting and more were keen to take on fruit-picking.
Gary Bennetts, owner of Teviot Orchard Ltd, Roxburgh, and chairman of Summerfruit New Zealand, a fruit industry group, said more tertiary students from Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington were working for him this summer.
He noted the minimum pay rate increased last year.
Fruit-pickers were expected to work hard but some contract pickers were earning up to $300 a day, with others also earning good money - $160 to $180 a day, he said.
