{"id":568650,"date":"2026-08-14T09:08:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568650\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T09:08:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:08:25","slug":"employment-hero-data-shows-wage-growth-dipping-into-negative-territory-whos-been-hit-hardest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568650\/","title":{"rendered":"Employment Hero data shows wage growth dipping into negative territory \u2013 who\u2019s been hit hardest?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those aged 18-24 years fared much better, with wages expanding 1.8% year on year.<\/p>\n

Workers between 35-44 years of age had annual wage growth of 0.1%, while wages for those aged 45-54 increased 0.3%.<\/p>\n

Neil Webster, Employment Hero general manager for New Zealand, said the data continues the trend of real-term losses for workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith wage growth now falling well behind inflation, workers will continue to feel it in the back pocket, which piles more pressure on to an already high cost of living,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSalaries have been struggling for a year, with the downward trajectory starting this time last year when wage growth stood at 4.7% year on year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drop to -0.4% has been rapid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report covered more than 2000 businesses and 85,000 employees. <\/p>\n

Webster said inflationary pressures, oil price challenges and softer consumer demand were all still in play for businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t expect a quick turnaround. It\u2019s fair to say New Zealand business leaders are playing it safe, with a focus on keeping costs under control rather than growing headcount.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the current employment market favours employers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are plenty of workers available, staff are sitting tight in their roles,and there\u2019s no pressure to pay more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stats NZ said last week that unemployment rose to 5.6%<\/a> in the June quarter \u2013 the highest recorded in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Of the 166,500 people who were unemployed in the June 2026 quarter (not seasonally adjusted), 19% had been unemployed for more than a year. <\/p>\n

Webster said this reflected a labour market that\u2019s cooling across the board.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Seek\u2019s latest Employment Report showed hiring activity fell for the third consecutive month as monthly job ad volumes decreased 0.8% in July.<\/p>\n

Job ad volumes are now 6.2% higher year on year.<\/p>\n

\u201cConditions remain strongest in the South Island, while larger centres, including Auckland, Wellington and Waikato, continue to face greater headwinds,\u201d Seek NZ country manager Rob Clark said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those aged 18-24 years fared much better, with wages expanding 1.8% year on year. Workers between 35-44 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1863,1558,138,3105,97110,193038,219,1122,1888,14724,3499,40088,12811,3594,296,807,685,4486,130,3403,111,139,69,36356,5348,418,4758,103847,131,165,2044,60700,17217,102,379],"class_list":["post-568650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-back","tag-been","tag-business","tag-data","tag-dipped","tag-dipping","tag-economy","tag-employment","tag-first","tag-further","tag-growth","tag-hardest","tag-hero","tag-hit","tag-into","tag-kiwis","tag-last","tag-month","tag-more","tag-negative","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pocket","tag-showing","tag-shows","tag-taking","tag-territory","tag-than","tag-their","tag-time","tag-wage","tag-whos","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}