Finding a job is getting harder as new data shows job listings are continuing to fall in Canterbury with more competition than ever before and limited places on offer.
Employment website Seek NZ's June dashboard shows job ad volumes fell 8 per cent nationally in June, and were down by more than a third from a year ago.
The number of vacancies listed has been consistently falling since February.
Applications per job ad, recorded with a one-month lag, showed a 1 per cent increase in May and were at record highs, Seek said.
Most regions saw a fall in job ad volumes, including a 7 per cent drop off in Canterbury, 9 per cent in Wellington, and 8 per cent in Auckland.
Manawatū recorded the biggest fall in monthly job ads with a 16 per cent drop, while Marlborough saw the highest annual fall of 50 per cent.
Seek country manager Rob Clark said the job market had become increasingly challenging for candidates.
"It's a lot tougher than it has been in the past. We are seeing a gradual decline in the number of advertised roles, but we're also seeing a very large number of applicants applying for each of the roles."
Clark said the website had more than 16,000 jobs listed, meaning "there still are roles out there".
A number of factors have made the job market tighter and it was not all down to immigration, he said.
"Immigration plays some role in it, but it's really about the economic cycle and the amount of economic activity, and at the moment, obviously, that's quite low."
It meant employers had decided not to add more people to their workforce, and this translated to fewer job listings.
In terms of the top 10 sectors for job ad volumes, retail and consumer products saw the biggest monthly fall, down 18 per cent.
Administration and office support recorded the biggest annual fall, down 44 per cent from June 2023.
