Canterbury job stats

The Press reports:

The number of jobs advertised in Canterbury this week would cater for only half of those on the dole.

Even if this stat is correct, that’s a very high proportion. That suggests that if a job stays listed for say a month, then over two months there would be more jobs listed than people on the dole in Canterbury.

About 28,000 Cantabrians are out of work, with 3424 being paid an unemployment benefit, but there are only about 1700 jobs advertised on employment listings website Seek.

The Sep 2012 HLFS says there are 317,000 people working in Canterbury, 17,000 unemployed (5.2%) and 147,000 not in the labour force but of working age.

On top of 17,000 unemployed, there are 9,000 available for work but not seeking it and 3,000 seeking it but not available.

But the rather dodgy stat is using Seek as the indicator of jobs available in Canterbury. It is just one website. Trade Me by comparison has 1,577 jobs. Not all of them will be duplicates.

So how many jobs are there available in Canterbury? ANZ tracks both print and online ads and found in October 2012 there were around 33,000 jobs ads nationwide. If you assume they are proportional to population, then that would indicate over 3,000 jobs advertised in Canterbury.

Overall it is a good story, but the stats used are a bit loose.

Security One managing director Graham Larson, who has been hiring people for more than 20 years, said about a third of all applications he received would be thrown away, especially if they came with a generic CV.

“If I bother to put my name and number on an ad, I would expect to be addressed as more than ‘Dear Sir’ or ‘Dear Manager’,” he said.

“People need to say this is who I am, this is what I can do and this is what I can do for your company – and for goodness sake, clear up your Facebook page.”

Blake Surfacings owner Peter Scott said he had been trying to find someone to take on a $16.50-an-hour “unofficial apprenticeship” with his industrial flooring firm for about six months.

Two people had expressed interest, but after asking them to send copies of their CV, neither replied. The job was “semi-skilled”, but all training would be provided on the job as Scott said he would prefer to hire someone “fresh” to the industry.

No surprise more and more people from overseas are being hired.