Ms Bardwell said yesterday Dunedin's commercial sector was quiet and redundancies were still occurring.
''Our experience is the commercial sector is slow, and by that I mean office-based jobs - usually general administration.''
The temporary staff Select had been dealing with were having to wait longer to get a job. While there were jobs available, employers were being cautious about taking extra staff on, questioning whether they really needed anyone extra, she said.
''Usually there is a boom between now and February in the commercial market. At the moment, it is either delayed or will not happen. This is bucking the trend.''
The Otago Daily Times contacted Ms Bardwell to discuss the latest Jobs Online monthly figures released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
The figures showed skilled-job vacancies increased in all regions. The largest increase was in the South Island (excluding Canterbury), up 12.1%. Wellington was next with a 4.9% increase, Canterbury was up 3% and the North Island (excluding Wellington and Auckland) was up 2.7%.
Ms Bardwell said nothing had changed for her or Select, and the trends of a year ago remained.
''Three weeks ago, I would have said we had a huge shortage of skilled people but you can't measure on a blip. I feel we are the same as last year. The situation hasn't changed.''
Finding skilled workers was still an issue as was finding people who could operate heavy machinery. Some of those people had gone to Christchurch.
Again, Southern employers were reacting with caution when considering hiring new staff. But it was not all doom and gloom, she said.
Ministry figures showed online job vacancies increased in September by 3.6% following a fall in August. All job vacancies increased by 2.6% after falling last month. In the year to September, skilled vacancies increased by 10.9% while all vacancies increased by 12.8%.
Industry group vacancies showed construction and engineering with the highest monthly change at 9.9% and the highest annual change at nearly 30%.
Accounting, HR, legal and administration were next, with a monthly increase of 5.4% and an annual change of 1.2%, followed by hospitality and tourism rises of 2.9% and 32.8%.
