Help Wanted in New Zealand: The ANZ Bank Job Advertisement Series

The ANZ Bank publishes a monthly count of the number of job advertisements appearing in New Zealand newspapers and, more recently, internet sites. It is New Zealand’s de facto vacancy or help-wanted series. Apart from its role in economic commentaries, there is very little published research using this data. This paper is a preliminary attempt to remedy this omission. It covers descriptive aspects of the ANZ job ads series including the vacancy rate, the hiring rate, regional characteristics and proxy vacancy series. This is followed by an outline of the vacancy-unemployment (Beveridge curve) and hiring frameworks and some initial econometric work. Overall, the paper highlights the importance of the vacancy rate and the hiring rate in assessing labour market conditions in New Zealand.