Fred News – May 2026

May Market News with Fred 

Recruitment runs on cycles. Spend enough time at a recruitment desk and you start to see the patterns. They’re how we make sense of markets, predict behaviour, and reassure ourselves we’ve seen it all before. Only now, we haven’t.

Now, nearly half way through 2026, the reflection feels different. Not cyclic. And for the first time in nearly a decade, this is equal parts exciting and divisive to the recruitment industry.

The reality is becoming clearer as the months roll along – if your recruitment partner isn’t investing in their technology and fully embracing AI and automation, you’re not getting value for your spend. This gap will continue to grow, between those who invest and adopt tech and  those who don’t. Tech is providing us efficiencies that we never thought possible, with ever increasing searchability intelligence, speed to fill and market reach. The best results still come from people networks and genuine people partnerships, just that one without the other, is no longer going to cut it.

AI is for everyone 

AI is a powerful beast. As clever as screening technology gets, so does the candidate’s ability to appeal – AI works for everyone and your average candidate is dropping your ad and their CV into their chosen AI tool to ensure alignment. In truth, the screening process remains as nuanced as ever, but for very new and different reasons. The old time consuming ways of recruiting through suitable profiles to find the shortlist, is now replaced with time consuming ways of recruiting through many ‘suitable profiles’ despite lack of genuine compatibility.

Our advice at Fred to the job seeker market; be original and genuine and to avoid AI for cover letters and CV polish ups, these are very same-same, and unappealing.

Business advisor Toss Grumley has some interesting comments on how AI is being used commercially – well worth a short read for those who lean on it for decision making.  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7462261707856519168/

Billboards 

With Fred now two years in the market, it has been a valuable push this year for us to run an out-of-home advertising campaign. Just for fun if you catch us on a billboard and would appreciate a one-off 10% fee (on any permanent or fixed term recruitment campaign) for the month of June, just click the link attached and send us a snap of one of our billboards out in the wild, and you’re all set to redeem a 10% recruitment fee. Who doesn’t love a good deal! Send your snap in here.

Market Confidence 

We mentioned it last month – an uptick in support roles. It’s great to see this continue into the year. There is a very certain shift in recruitment coming in the door at Fred, and nothing indicates a step in the right direction more than our clients prioritising their support roles around their revenue generating roles. Wellington mightn’t share quite the same degree of enthusiasm as government announces close to 9,000 roles to be wiped from the public sector by 2029, yet another blow for the government dependant workforce resulting in a large influx of candidates flocking to the local private sector, or moving out of the capital entirely.

Positive news for our economy

According to discussions out of this week’s Auckland Chamber of Commerce event attended by our consultants, Port of Auckland CEO reports NZ’s economy is well and truly back on track.  The port is processing the highest volume of containers in the last 7 years, with stats including things such as:

• Cars and agriculture machinery – up 12% YOY

• 3 million tonnes of bulk product (excluding coal imports)

• Other general intel is that card spending from Stats NZ is on the rise YOY.

Brad Olsen has summarised NZ as being in a space of strong momentum, coming through “the worst oil crisis in 50 years” relatively unscathed due to this. Further comments from Brad were “the private sector needs to take the reins” and to “focus on business rather than politics”.  Data shows more of a mix of goods and services, rather than just goods exports and urges businesses to become more adaptable to change, resulting in more resilience to risks and global crises. He advises businesses need to put more of a focus on training and leadership with only 1/3 of business investing in management and leadership training for the staff – this being key in supporting the scale back up of the economy.

Head of Tourism and Events Lisa Hopkins summarises this first quarter as their best since a huge year in 2019 with expectations that September onwards will bring further positive growth. Thriving industries mentioned; Primary industries, IT/Professional Services and Financial Services.

The overall message is that there is “A lot of opportunity out there and NZ only needs a small portion of the pie on a global scale to do incredibly well”.  It’s nice to have such strong messaging from NZ’s most informed economists and heads!

FredMed 

FredMed has officially rebranded, marking the next phase of our growth and positioning in the healthcare recruitment space.

A key focus for us has been expanding into the international market, with targeted job advertising and outreach campaigns now live across Green List countries, including the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Singapore, and Australia.

Our strategy is tightly aligned with New Zealand’s most critical workforce gaps. We are actively building pipelines across GPs, SMOs, Allied Health professionals, Mental Health specialists, and Pharmacists.

We’re seeing strong traction globally, particularly with senior and hard-to-source candidates. Our team is actively guiding these professionals through the registration process, ensuring a smooth transition into the NZ healthcare system.

In addition, through our partnership with a specialist immigration advisory firm, we’re able to support candidates end-to-end, including visa pathways, making the relocation process significantly easier.

One notable trend is the sharp increase in interest from US-based clinicians looking to relocate to New Zealand…any guesses why?

We value our networks and business community, and would love to work with you if we are not already.  Please feel free to reach out to any one of us if you would like to chat about any support we may be able to offer you.