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A Wellington jobseeker says hunting for work “feels like a lottery” after missing out on a part-time casual mini putt position that attracted more than 600 applicants.

When local business owner David Kirby uploaded his job advertisement to Seek, he wasn’t expecting the amount of engagement it received.

A Christmas casual role, working as a sales assistant at Welly-Putt in the capital’s CBD, has attracted more than 600 applicants in just over three weeks - painting a bleak picture of the state of the capital’s job market.

The job ad offered an average of 5-15 hours of work each week, “ideal for someone looking to supplement their income while in Wellington,” but Kirby said it had attracted people from “all walks of life” including people who were “overqualified”.

The minimum wage role is just one of hundreds currently available across Wellington. Seek said in a statement there were 558 jobs on the site for Wellington roles paying up to $50,000 per annum. There are 1824 in Auckland and 673 in Christchurch.

“You definitely get a vibe that it’s people who just need a job. There’s a lot of people applying who realistically aren’t going to be the right fit because of what they’re after, but definitely the whole spectrum, for sure,” Kirby said.

Welly-Putt owner David Kirby was surprised to receive more than 600 applications for a part time casual role at his mini golf business. Photo / Tobias Macintosh

One woman who applied for the role, who did not want to be identified, believed scoring a job in the capital felt like a “frustrating pipe dream”.

“It just feels like an impossible task, and completely out of reach,” she said.

“It doesn’t feel like 10 or so years ago where you did stand a good chance. These days, even when you’re putting your best foot forward, everything’s good on paper, you’re interviewing well, you’re still not really getting anywhere and it’s frustrating.”

She did an interview for the position but was told she had not made the cut.

“It’s so hard to stay motivated and stay focused on job seeking and putting yourself out there for an interview because it’s just starting to feel like a lottery,” she said.

“It’s so hard not to stress out and you start to feel ill. It just starts to kind of upend your whole life, you don’t know where your money’s coming from or you don’t know how you’re going to look after yourself. It’s really, really emotionally distressing.”

The annual average unemployment rate in Wellington City was 4.8% in the year to June 2025, up from 3.8% in the previous 12 months, according to Infometrics.

Recent job losses across the likes of the public sector have contributed to the city’s unemployment rate rise from 2.8% to 4.8% over the year to June.

The number of Jobseeker Support recipients rose 16% from last year to 7157 people, the highest number since Infometrics began collecting the data in 2009.

“My heart goes out to the amount of people who are applying,” Kirby said.

“It must be really demoralising, I can’t imagine what it is like for people out there at the minute.”

Kirby had previously seen around 100 applicants for roles he’s advertised, and had a slight inkling this one could be similar, after a former employee told him that many jobs online had about 800 applicants.

Wading through the endless applications was taking up a lot of Kirby’s time, but he remained determined to give everyone a fair crack.

“It’s not fair to not give people a fair go, or at least view the application. It’s just a case of putting a bit more time into it and whittling it down slowly but surely,” he said.

He has interviewed about 25 people so far.

A large bulk of those applying for the role are students, or young people looking to secure their first job.

Kirby said people often asked for feedback on what can be done better if they did not get the job, but they “didn’t even do that much wrong. It’s just you’re talking about the numbers game”.

He hoped to get two or three employees from the stack of applications.

He wanted to wish all jobhunters luck, as the market at the moment was an “absolute shocker”.