What the Buck?!

Consult Recruitment’s annual Market Snapshot & Salary Report.

Running since 2016, our annual What the Buck? survey has helped business leaders, hiring managers and professionals understand what’s happening in the NZ job market.

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Register for a copy of our latest What the Buck? report and one of our consultants will be in touch. Your details will be collected in accordance with our privacy policy.

Here’s what New Zealanders said in our 2026 market survey.

The NZ job market is shifting fast. Here are key highlights from our 2026 What the Buck? market survey.

Confidence is growing.

While recovery hasn’t been immediate or uniform across sectors, market confidence is stronger than last year.

New Zealand business top strategic priorities.

As confidence returns, businesses are positioning themself for growth. Not surprisingly, AI & automation feature as a priority with AI steadily becoming business as usual.

Employer advantage is holding, but the gap is closing.

Securing the right capability and talent quality remains a consistent challenge for organisations.

What’s keeping people engaged at work?

Flexibility and pay still matter, but strong leadership and recognition of work are becoming just as important for employee engagement.

AI is quickly becoming part of everyday work.

AI has shifted from an emerging technology to a mainstream business consideration, but full company-wide strategy and integration vary across sectors.

Register to get the full results.

What the Buck? is Consult Recruitment’s proprietary market survey we run annually. It’s fresh, NZ-specific and built to help businesses and professionals understand the job market and make better hiring and career decisions.

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