Measuring Job Vacancies in New

Zealand through Jobs Online

LEW 14 Conference 2010Anne Fale, Carmel Tuya and Dr Dafydd Davies

Outline• Rationale for measuring job vacancy information• Measuring job vacancies in New Zealand and overseas

• Department of Labour’s Jobs Online• Results from Jobs Online• Comparing Jobs Online to the unemployment rate• Comparing Jobs Online to other labour market indicators

• Further developments on Jobs Online• Conclusion.

Rationale for measuring job vacancy information• Job vacancies - an important indicator of changes in labour market demand

• Provides information about economic changes

• Job vacancies assist in determining occupations in shortage and skill shortages

• Monthly information that is available promptly

• Provides data for labour market research.

Measuring job vacancies in New Zealand

• Several vacancy series since the 1950s

• ANZ job advertisement series

• Job Vacancy Monitoring Programme (JVMP)

• SEEK employment index

• Jobs Online.

International Experience

• United States: Help Wanted Online (HWOL) series

• Australia: Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)’s Internet Vacancy Index.

Department of Labour’s Jobs Online

• Developed to address the need for labour market demand information

• Shift to collecting online advertising of job vacancies

• Replaces Job Vacancy Monitoring Programme (JVMP)

• Low administrative costs• Focused on skilled vacancies• Data presented as an index• Job vacancies by region, industry and occupation.

How does the Department of labour use Jobs Online?

• Ministerial purposes

• Other purposes.

Results from Jobs Online

• Skilled Vacancies Index (SVI) and All Vacancies Index (AVI) indexes

• SVI by region

• SVI by industry

• SVI by occupation.

Jobs Online: Skilled Vacancies Index (SVI)

Jobs Online: Skilled Vacancies Index (SVI) and All Vacancies Index (AVI)

Jobs Online by region

Jobs Online by industry

Jobs Online by occupation

Comparing Jobs Online to the other labour market indicators

• Skilled Vacancies Index (SVI) and unemployment rate

• The Beveridge curve• Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion (QSBO):•Labour turnover•Difficulty in finding labour•Labour as a constraint.

Jobs Online and the unemployment rate

Relationship between job vacancies and unemployment: the Beveridge curve

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

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45

50

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Vacancy rate

U nem ploym ent rate

ContractionLow Vacancy

Expansion H igh Vacancy

Using Jobs Online to test the Beveridge curve

0.00.51.01.52.02.53.03.54.0

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Vacancy rate (% )

U nem ploym ent rate (% )

Jobs Online and labour turnover

Jobs Online and difficulty in finding labour

Jobs Online and labour as a constraint

Further developments for Jobs Online

• Generalised job boards• Specialist job boards• Seasonal adjustment• The Beveridge curve relationship• Using vacancy rate to forecast unemployment rate.

Conclusion

• Jobs Online uses online ads• Increased number of ads• Decreased administrative costs

• As expected, when we tested the Beveridge curve using Jobs Online data, it generated the relationship between vacancy rate and unemployment rate

• Ongoing improvements to Jobs Online can be made through:• Splicing in data from Heraldjobs• Seasonally adjusted series.

For more information

• Jobs Online Monthly Report: http://dol.govt.nz/publications/jol/report/

• For a copy of the LEW14 conference paper contact us at:[email protected]

• Any questions?