Manpower says the anticipated Christchurch rebuild is boosting employers confidence, but one analyst is picking the recovery it will take longer than expected to get off the ground.
The latest survey by the recruitment firm shows a net 18% of employers expect to hire more staff over the remainder of the year.
Manpower says Christchurch's rebuilding plan is driving some of the optimism, with the anticipated increase in the construction sector's need for workers rising nine percentage points.
Sales and marketing general manager Chris Riley said Christchurch is the strongest region in the country right now.
There is a skilled trade shortage which is only going to get worse as the rebuild gets underway.
However, one analyst is picking that the rebuild will take a lot longer than the Government is anticipating because there is not enought capacity in the economy to get it underway as quickly as hoped.
First NZ Capital economics and strategy director Chris Green said official forcasts suggest a reasonably rapid acceleration in activity with a peak around 2015, but he believed it will take longer.
"In terms of bottlenecks, there are skill shortages, there are some risks of cost increases, and on the regulatory side there are planning issues," he said.
