New Zealand job advertisements fell in December, with the Christchurch labour market slowed by more delays to the city's reconstruction, according to the ANZ New Zealand job advertisements series.
Job ads fell a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent in December, after a 0.8 percent increase in November. The decline was led by a 4.5 percent decrease in newspaper listings, while internet advertising fall 1.8 percent.
The number of job ads has fallen in three out of the last fourth months.
In the main centres Canterbury experienced the strongest growth in job adverts, up 2.5 percent, while Wellington advertisements fell 7.5 percent and Auckland 2 percent.
"Growth in job advertising in Canterbury has flattened out, but Christchurch remains unambiguously the strongest main centre," said Steve Edwards, economist at ANZ New Zealand.
This week the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's quarterly survey of business opinion showed local trading activity had slowed and business confidence dimmed in the December quarter as the flurry of work in the wake of the Canterbury earthquakes slowed.
NZN