NZ Job Market

[ScottNZ]

We all see the news, and hear stories. Is the economy cooling or heating up…
Could those in the NZ job market looking for work opine as to any anecdotal evidence or personal experiences as to changes in the job market over the past few months?

[SueDonim]

Hi Scott,

Despite my trials and tribulations in my job hunt, there seem to be heaps of jobs out there. It seems to me that certain career fields fare better than others. My gut feel is that health care, teaching, and IT seem to be in demand (based on what I see here on ENZ).

I am in financial services (funds management) FWIW. I see you have a CPA. I can tell you that lots of jobs I have looked at require a CA (and many specify "or its equivalent") that don't necessarily need it based on the job description. It seems clear to me the CA is highly valued and acts to some degree as a validation of skill set above and beyond the strict accounting functions.

So I would think that should work in your favour.

In many of my discussions we have discussed the global and NZ economy. The consensus seems to be that it is cooling a bit here, but will fare much better than the world as a whole, particularly if the powers that be continue to crank up the printing presses.

Being off the beaten path, having a relatively conservative banking culture, and greater exposure to Australia and China bode well. That it is a commodity based economy should insulate NZ from US and European problems to a degree, especially in an inflationary environment.

Risks are low savings rate, that the currency is driven more by global events and trade relationship with Australia, and problems if Australia and/or China implode.

AMP/AXA merger and ANZ/ING merger have cooled financial services hiring. But it seems they have progressed enough that their hiring freezes may be thawing (at least at AMP who just contacted me about a possible position - albeit quite junior).

Might be bigger picture than you were looking for, but I hope it helps. What part of US are you from?