Casual job listings jump 59 percent as NZ businesses shy away from permanent hires

New Zealand employers are increasingly turning to casual work arrangements rather than committing to permanent staff, with the number of casual job listings on the Seek platform jumping 59 percent since June 2024.

The shift reflects the caution gripping the business community as economic uncertainty persists. While the labour market has stabilised compared to the peak disruption of 2022 and 2023, employers appear reluctant to lock in the ongoing costs and obligations that come with permanent employment. Casual employees now make up 4.9 percent of the workforce, the highest proportion since 2021, according to analysis by Infometrics.

Brad Olsen, chief economist at Infometrics, said businesses remain hesitant even as conditions have begun to improve. “They are still quite cautious about where the state of the economy is, how fragile some of those green shoots looked — so opting a bit more for the casual rather than a permanent employee to come in. Just giving businesses a bit more options,” he told RNZ.

For many workers, the growth in casual arrangements is not a lifestyle choice. Chantelle Williams, an Auckland mother of two who works in traffic management on a casual contract, said the reduction in available hours had become a source of real financial pressure.

“At the moment I am struggling to get to 20 hours a week. So over time it just puts more pressure on you. Because you’re falling behind in your financial obligations,” Williams told RNZ.

She also described the unpredictability that comes with casual work on a daily basis. “I could get calls in the afternoon saying I need you at work right now. So literally you have no time to do anything else other than grab a shower, jump in the car and go to work.”

The contrast within the casual workforce is sharp. For some workers, flexibility is a genuine benefit. Silke Hartung, who works casual shifts at live music events while also running a small business selling music earplugs, said the arrangement suited her circumstances well. “I still get to freelance and work at other events which works very well for me,” she said.

But employment lawyers warn that the label of “casual” is being stretched by some employers in ways that create legal risk for the business. Charlotte Parkhill, an employment lawyer, said the distinction between genuinely casual work and what is effectively part-time employment is often blurred in practice.

“The person involved might work every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for two years and the employer calls it casual, and that means they’re not truly casual, they’re actually a part time employee … because you’ve got that pattern,” Parkhill told RNZ.

The legal implications are significant. Casual employees who establish a regular and predictable pattern of work may be entitled to the same protections as permanent part-time employees, including guaranteed hours and entitlements the employer may not have anticipated. Businesses that misclassify workers as casual to avoid those obligations could face retrospective claims.

Beyond the legal dimension, the broader economic consequences of the shift are worth considering. Casual workers do not accumulate paid leave entitlements in the same way as permanent staff, which means they are more likely to continue working while unwell. That is a well-documented source of productivity loss for employers over time. Casual workers also face greater difficulty accessing housing finance, which matters in an environment where home ownership remains a significant goal for many New Zealanders.

The 59 percent rise in casual listings is a meaningful signal about how employers are reading the current moment. Business confidence data has seesawed over the past 18 months, with periods of cautious optimism punctuated by global shocks including the oil price surge following the Iran conflict and softening export commodity prices. Each setback has pushed the threshold for permanent hiring a little higher.

Olsen’s framing — that businesses are hedging rather than committing — points to a labour market that looks stable on headline employment figures but is carrying more risk for workers than those numbers reveal. The official unemployment rate does not distinguish between someone in a secure permanent role and someone who scrapes together 20 hours a week across several casual engagements.

For workers like Williams, the uncertainty of casual employment is a daily reality rather than an abstract statistic. Making ends meet on fewer hours than expected, with no reliable schedule to plan around, creates a kind of financial precariousness that does not show up in the headline data.

Employment lawyers and economists alike suggest the trend has further to run if business confidence remains subdued. Permanent hiring typically follows only when employers are confident they have stable, growing revenue streams to justify the ongoing cost. In the current environment, that threshold remains elevated for many New Zealand firms.

The consequence is a workforce that is becoming more flexible from the employer’s perspective and more exposed from the worker’s. How far that rebalancing goes will depend largely on how quickly the broader New Zealand economy finds its footing — and whether the global headwinds currently pressing down on the outlook ease before more casual contracts become the new normal.

Do you work in casual employment or manage casual staff? Share your experience in the comments below.