Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does an increase (or a decrease) in advertised vacancies mean?

Growth in the number of advertised vacancies suggests it has become harder for employers to recruit staff, while a decline suggests that it has become easier. When there is an adequate supply of labour an employer may be able to fill their vacancy through word-of-mouth. However, when there is a shortage of labour employers are more likely to advertise and may need to repeat advertisements if the positions are particularly difficult to fill.

2. JVM concentrates on newspaper ads but aren't employers shifting to the internet?

Over the past year or so there has been rapid growth in the number of job vacancies advertised on the internet. This growth does not necessarily mean that employers have switched from newspaper to internet; many employers are likely to have started using both media. The Department of Labour believes there has not been a fundamental change in employers' decisions to advertise vacancies in newspapers over the recent past. This is based on statistical analysis of advertised vacancies which shows that trends in advertised vacancies are still consistent with trends in other labour market indicators such as the skill shortage measures from the Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion.

3. In your analysis of the JVM you only make annual comparisons (e.g. you compare December 2005 with December 2004). Why don't you make monthly comparisons (e.g. December 2005 with November 2005)?

The JVM is not able to measure short term changes as it cannot be seasonally adjusted until sufficient data are available. Seasonal adjustment removes impacts of the time of year from a series. For example, we cannot currently compare March JVM data with December data as December advertising is heavily influenced by its proximity to Christmas. If there was an increase in advertised vacancies between December and March we would not know whether it was due to the impact of Christmas or due to fundamental changes in the state of the labour market.

4. What do you use this information for?

The JVM information feeds into our skill shortage research, which falls under the umbrella of the Job Vacancy Monitoring Programme. This programme conducts in-depth studies into various occupations in shortage, so we can understand why shortages are occurring. An understanding of these forces helps government formulate policies to alleviate shortages.

In a more general sense the JVM contributes to our wider understanding of the state of the labour market in New Zealand. It is one of the many monitoring activities that contribute to the Department of Labour's goal of being the authority on the labour market.

5. Does it inform immigration policy?

Yes. The JVM is part of our wider Job Vacancy Monitoring Programme which informs, along with other information, the compilation of the Department's skill shortage lists. These lists influence the type of skills that are imported among the 50,000 new migrants that come into New Zealand annually, via skilled migrant, business, family and humanitarian entry categories.

6. Does anyone else use it?

The JVM is one of the few frequent and timely sources of regional labour market information made available, and many of its users are located in the regions. Work and Income offices use it to identify types of jobs advertised in their regions, which can help them to identify opportunities for unemployed persons.

7. How does the JVM differ from the ANZ job ad series?

There are a number of differences:

• JVM measures job vacancies, while ANZ measures job advertisements. If an employer took a double page spread in a newspaper in which it advertised 50 positions, ANZ would count that as a single advertisement, whereas JVM would count it as 50 vacancies. This difference is of considerable importance as the number of vacancies advertised per advertisement has been growing over time as the labour market gets tighter.
• The ANZ series is an aggregate count of advertisements whereas JVM captures and analyses each advertised vacancy separately and enables detailed analysis by occupation, region, urban area etc.
• JVM is based on 25 newspapers whereas the ANZ series is based on seven.
• The ANZ series is based on all editions of each newspaper each month whereas JVM is based on a single edition each month (usually the first Saturday edition).
• JVM removes duplicate vacancies (e.g. a vacancy advertised in two different papers on the same day) whereas the ANZ list does not.

8. Can the figures for specific regions be broken down into job categories?

Yes. The JVM reports on the number of job vacancies for more than 600 occupations for each region in the country other than Tasman (which has no daily newspaper, although there are Tasman-based jobs in other newspapers - particularly the Nelson Mail). All the detailed statistics are available on the Department of Labour website, www.dol.govt.nz