A survey of businesses' hiring intentions suggests the rebuilding of Canterbury could be about to get underway in earnest.
The survey by international recruiting firm Hudson found 33.7% of employers nationwide intend to increase their head count, the highest level since the September quarter of 2008 and up 3.2 percentage points from three months ago.
New Zealand general manager Roman Rogers says the result is even stronger in the South Island where 52.6% of employers intend to hire in the next quarter, up 12.3 percentage points from three months ago.
He says the figures highlight three cities - the impact of rebuilding Christchurch; additional requests for resources in Wellington to help deliver on projects that have been promised by the Government; and increased consumer confidence which is starting to flow through to business confidence in Auckland.
Mr Rogers says there have been five to six quarters of incremental improvement in business and consumer confidence, which is finally starting to flow through to more buoyant behaviour when it comes to investing in business, which in turn has an impact on investing in people.
