WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Job advertisements in New Zealand jumped 3.1 percent in January, the largest monthly rise in three years, a survey by ANZ Bank showed on Thursday.
Gains were led by the construction and manufacturing sector, amid severe skill shortages as the country goes through a building boom.
Areas outside the main cities, such as the West Coast and Southland, saw the fastest growth in job ads. In the commercial centre of Auckland they fell 0.5 percent year on year.
Economists suggested that meant the strong surge might be short-lived and that job ads would soon flatten out.
"All three main centres provide evidence that the number of job ads is bouncing around high levels, rather than trending upward from here," said Kyle Uerata, economic statistician at ANZ.
On an annual basis job ads grew 5.9 percent, the survey showed.
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; editing by Andrew Roche)
