SEEK's August numbers: a strong headline, and a different story for tech and finance

SEEK's August Employment Report makes for cheerful reading at first glance. Job ads rose 0.6% on July, are up 9.7% on last year, and August marks 21 straight months of growth. Auckland had its biggest monthly jump in over four years.

Look under the hood, though, and most of that growth is coming from hospitality, retail, manufacturing and mining. For the professional and technical roles we recruit for, the picture is more mixed.

Tech: flat on the month, but the brief is changing

Information & Communication Technology ads dipped 0.5% in August and are up 4.8% on last year, about half the national rate. Science & Technology was flat for the month and is down 8.7% year on year.

What's moving faster than volume is what employers are asking for. AI skills now show up in 17.6% of ICT ads, and 4.0% of all ads nationally, with AI mentions up 93.3% on a year ago. The fastest-growing asks are Agentic AI (up 7.1% on the month) and AI Ethics & Governance (up 7.9%). Generative AI is still growing, but more slowly at 2.3%.

In other words, fewer "general" tech roles, and more roles where AI capability or AI governance is written into the job description.

Finance and banking: still the soft spot

Banking & Financial Services ads fell 2.3% in August and are down 10.7% on last year, one of the weakest results across all industries. Accounting slipped 0.1% for the month and is down 2.4% year on year. Insurance & Superannuation lifted 1.6% in August but is flat annually.

Administration & Office Support also dropped 1.2% on the month and hasn't grown in a year. SEEK notes that roles with high exposure to automation, such as keyboard operators and HR clerks, are now slightly down on last year while less automatable roles keep growing. AI isn't the only reason, but it's part of the picture.

Consulting & Strategy: the quiet standout

Consulting & Strategy was one of the strongest white-collar performers, up 3.7% on the month and 16.6% on the year. AI features in 9.3% of those ads. That lines up with organisations investing in transformation and change, even where they're cautious about permanent headcount elsewhere.

Other corporate functions are ticking along: HR & Recruitment up 17.5% on last year, Marketing & Communications up 3.4%, and Legal up 2.5%. Government & Defence fell 1.7% in August but is still up 6.7% annually.

Auckland and Wellington

Auckland ads rose 1.0% in August and are up 5.0% on last year. That's welcome, but the monthly spike was led by hospitality (up 3.5%) and manufacturing, transport and logistics (up 2.6%), not office-based roles.

Wellington rose a modest 0.2% for the month and is up 8.0% on last year, with retail and community services doing the heavy lifting.

More competition for every role

Applications per ad rose 0.9% in July, the sharpest increase in 18 months, and have now grown two months in a row. More jobs are on offer, but more people are applying for each one.

What this means

For hiring managers: good candidates are available, but so are a lot of applicants. Expect bigger shortlists to wade through, especially for roles that aren't clearly defined. If you're hiring for AI, data or governance capability, be specific about what you need, because that's where competition for talent is heating up.

For candidates: the market is improving, but tech and finance are recovering more slowly than the headlines suggest. If you've got real, hands-on AI experience, make it obvious on your CV. If you're in banking or accounting, it's worth looking at adjacent roles in consulting, transformation or the public sector, where demand is holding up better.

Source: SEEK NZ Employment Report, August 2026.