An economist says the slow pace of economic recovery is feeding into other areas including job advertisements.
Two studies out this week show a slowdown in newspaper and online ads in June after a pick in May.
ANZ's monthly job index recorded a seasonally adjusted drop of 1.4%. Canterbury advertisements eased while other regions remained flat.
In the second set of data, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment figures showed online job ads fell by 4.5% in June.
Sharon Zollner. Photo: RNZ
ANZ senior economist Sharon Zollner says the trend has been flat for almost a year and a half and will remain choppy until the labour market gets a kick from the rebuilding in Canterbury.
Ms Zollner says the growth trend in the economy is about half the speed it used to be before the recession which is affecting areas such as the employment market.
This suggests the unemployment rate will probably remain around 6.5% over the next year or so.
Ms Zollner says the data is volatile month to month but newspapers are generally losing market share to internet jobs.
She says the job market in Canterbury picked up around mid-2011 and although it has levelled off is still the strongest of the main centres relative to its own history.
Ms Zollner says residential rebuilding in Canterbury is likely to kick off before the end of this year but the commercial reconstruction is still some time away and will be a multi-year undertaking.
