Checkpoint has heard from dozens of public servants who were made redundant last year and are still struggling to find employment. Photo: RNZ / Quin Tauetau
Hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year's public sector gutting, a former senior worker struggling to find employment says.
According to the latest Stats NZ employment data, unemployment rose to 5.1 percent in the three months ended December - the highest level since 2020. That comes to about 156,000 people.
Checkpoint discussed the plight of the country's unemployed with Finance Minister Nicola Willis last week, which prompted dozens of public sector workers to get in touch to tell us what it has been like since they lost their jobs.
An ex-public servant - who Checkpoint has agreed not to name - was working in a senior role at Te Whatu Ora up until May last year.
"When it came round to the 12-month mark, things started to get a bit uncertain, which is why I started looking then.
"There was a hiring freeze internally essentially, if your contract came up for renewal during the hiring freeze, you just got dropped and that's what happened to me."
They were told that their 18-month fixed-term contract would likely be renewed, but by early 2024 it became clear that the writing was on the wall and they would need to look for a new job.
It also became apparent that they were far from the only public servant in this position.
"The public sector has been gutted, so every job that I apply for has hundreds if not thousands of applicants."
Over the last nine months they have applied for 90 roles and had seven interviews.
They have even applied for roles overseas in the hope of being able to work remotely.
Citing Public Service Commission advice, Finance Minister Nicola Willis told Checkpoint that there were 1723 public redundancies in the year to September 2024.
But the public servant believes the actual number of people left out of work is much higher.
"Well, actually I know that the fixed term contractors weren't included in those numbers, particularly for Health New Zealand so those numbers are inaccurate I'd say they're on the low end."
This woman, who did not want her name used, also lost her job at Te Whatu Ora where she was a project co-ordinator.
She had also been told her job would be safe.
"I was in the first cuts of slashing in the public health system.
"So, I went from, you know, being told you're absolutely fine [to] you're not permanent, but you're fine and then got four weeks notice."
She has applied for 104 jobs in the last seven months, initially selective about which roles she applied for.
But after a few weeks she started applying for anything and everything.
"When I say everything, I mean anything from cleaning to the local BP ... most of the time, you'd get ghosted."
Now she finds herself unable to pay the mortgage and in need of food parcels.
Despite living in Christchurch, she is not immune from the flow-on effects of job cuts in the capital.
"The HR places were saying, look, you realise you're competing with half of Wellington who are trying to, you know, relocate because they can't stay in Wellington there's no jobs."
Employment support organisations seeing wider variety of people
Jacqui Eyley is an executive director for the employment support organisations Dress for Success and Yes to Success, which help people into work through mentoring, workshops and providing professional clothing.
She said they were getting a wider variety of people coming through their doors.
"So, we're definitely getting more people who are highly skilled and qualified who are coming to us for help with even writing a CV you know, they may have been in a role, probably a government role for 20 years, but they're finding themselves unemployed."
In a statement, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she felt for anyone who lost a job, and she appreciated some former public servants would have struggled to find work immediately after being made redundant.
She was unable to say how many of the public servants who lost their jobs have gone on to find new roles, but she was confident that some have been hired elsewhere.
For those finding themselves needing to look for employment, Jacqui Eyley had these tips.
"I think there's a tendency, if you've been out of work for a while and you're panicking maybe a bit is just to apply for everything and anything.
"You really need to know who you are as a person, what your skills are, and do a really good covering letter.
"If you're using AI, please please edit it, if you're looking as a recruiter and you're seeing all these CV'S looking the same, it makes it very hard to choose someone."
Bridget Clarke from Robert Walters Recruitment in Wellington said the number of experienced public servants looking for jobs meant the situation was also incredibly tough for graduates looking for work.
"So for the graduates it's to try and continue to leverage their networks, to make sure that they've got good cover letters, good CVs, you know door knocking should be considered around putting their best foot forward, continue to try and don't lose hope."
For those who kept getting knocked back she advised they get some advice from a recruitment consultancies to ensure their job applications were appropriately tailored to the position.
And with so many people out of work, job hunters cannot afford to put a foot wrong.
'We're still in for another tough year' - recruiter
Clark said the situation for job seekers was incredibly tough, particularly in the capital where there were a number of high quality applicants for positions.
In Wellington, job applications had risen by 46 percent year-on-year, while at the same time job adverts had fallen by 22 percent year-on-year, she said.
"So there's simply more people than there are roles, particularly in the Wellington market."
Clarke said it was the worst she had seen it.
"I have been in recruitment for 13 years and I've never seen it this bad and we're being hit here in Wellington from both the public sector but also the private sector as well - so there's simply not enough roles to go around for the number of quality candidates that we have."
There was currently a lot of uncertainty in the market which meant that the private sector also tended to put a pause on hiring so new jobs were not being created, she said.
Clarke said the Robert Walters Recruitment offices in Australia had seen an increase in the number of applications from people in New Zealand.
"And these aren't your typical grads with a couple of years experience, these are mid to senior managers that have been hit with the public sector cuts that need to move to get money for their families."
Clarke said the job market was going to be tough this year and people needed to be more open to the salaries and hourly rates they were considering, to perhaps consider short-term of fixed term contracts where they could.
"We're still in for another tough year - it's going to be tough."
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