The start of a new year is often the time we, as individuals start re-evaluating our lives and the progress we've made in the previous year. It's a time when we all think about the future and raise a few questions around our careers, our earning potential and stability. Do we like our jobs well enough to stay another year? Are we being fairly reimbursed for our efforts? Are there better opportunities out there?
For some, the new year means graduation and a whole new direction in their lives. For others, it means choosing a career path and enrolling in tertiary education or knocking on the right doors to ask for that opportunity. This stage of your career too, brings many of the same questions - what industry offers the best future? What can you expect to earn? What industries are growing fastest? What skills are employers looking for?
Going online is the perfect place to get the answers to these questions - but there is a lot of conflicting advice, old news and manipulative data out there - so who do you trust and how do you not get buried in the distraction rather than the answers?
This may sound like an 'oxymoron' when talking about factual data, but what about the NZ Govt?
If their data is right, it's all looking pretty good going into 2019.
If there is one institution that has a combined interest in future forecast for employment, business and job growth and your individual success, it would have to be the New Zealand Government. They have the resources to data-mine, the skills to analyse and the network to display the data in an easy to process format - and of course, the motivation to get it right.
For depth of information, up to date data and even website design that offers easy access and absorption of information, the Government must be the primary source of information for career advice and research.
CareersNZ is the Govt's hub for career advice and information, with an extensive job database and information on courses and help with your CV. If you're launching into a new career or immigrating to New Zealand, this is a very useful site to research - - but, what about everyone else?
For a more in-depth analysis of the current and future projections for New Zealand, you may want to spend some time looking through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website. As uninspiring as their name suggests them to be, the layout, information and depth of data on this website make it an excellent resource for market research.
The "Occupation Outlook" website is a useful resource for anyone interested in their career.
The site itself is broken down to 'industry' categories, giving a simple and easy to absorb summary from the first page. Scrolling down the page reveals a summary category for every primary industry in the New Zealand job market. Each category lists all the occupations for that industry with a 'fuel gauge' graphic making an easy comparison on salary, study fees and job prospects for employment.
Going deeper into the individual job listings will give you a detailed breakdown on the job, qualifications required, expected salary and employment potential - including projections for the growth of the industry. There is data on average salaries, historical data on the number of advertised job vacancies, employment charts and projected growth out to 2021.
For someone who is looking for career information or cares about the projections for the economy into the future, this is a very useful overview of employment in New Zealand.
Employment New Zealand is another MOBIE website, this time with a bent toward employment law. It's a useful resource for both employees and small business to get a better understanding of the rules governing employment in the NZ workforce and the processes for mediation and disputes.
We all know that Governments are really good at collecting information and analysing it, but it turns out they're pretty good at website design and sharing that data too - and the general overview of what they're giving us on the employment prospects for New Zealanders in the short term is - It's all good in the hood.
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