southerner

There are both more jobs in Auckland and more applicants applying for those jobs, so I'm not sure whether it necessarily holds that your prospects will be better. I don't think the vacancies/population or employment rate is any higher in Auckland than anywhere else, and with a good general vocation like accounting there will be advertised roles throughout the country.

In fact I would hazard a guess three quarters of the roles will be outside Auckland (on a population basis), but I'm happy to be corrected on that, as head offices will tend to be a bit more concentrated in Auckland, while Govt departments will be in Wellington.

teeym

I think with regards to accountancy the nail has been very much hit on the head with that! Whilst it seems like the majority of jobs are in Auckland (and certainly there is the largest concentration of them there), the rest of the country is chock full of rural practises and local offices of larger companies. Have a look for Accountants on the Yellow Pages website for places like Hamilton, Napier, ChCh or New Plymouth - there's plenty of them!!! This is also a great way of finding websites for these companies which quite often contain any vacancies they may have.

However if you want a career similar to that which you could expect in the UK, then realistically you've got to be either in a big population centre and likewise if you're in a position like us where the accountant has a numpty in tow who also needs to find something to keep them occupied for 8-9 hrs a day, the big cities will offer more chances. Needless to say, should SWMBO land her dream job out in the boondocks, I'll simply tag along, pull my shorts on and head down to the local rugby club for a bit of social drinki....... networking until something crops up.

leveller5

Thank you both for the advice there... I can see what you're saying about the jobs / applicants ratio being higher in Auckland.

For the time being, while my OH has applications in with schools in Auckland, I am going to concentrate my search there too. If though we have no luck, I think we will start widening our search somewhat. Its comforting to know that if Auckland is proving unsuccessful we could be able to find jobs in other areas.

Si