With more people relocating to the Bay of Plenty, so too have the number of job vacancies in the region.

The latest Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Jobs Online report show vacancies from May to June of this year rose 2.6 per cent – the biggest monthly increase in the country.

The number of job vacancies in the Bay of Plenty have increased according to a new Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment report. File Photo.

The Bay also experienced the largest annual increase of the country's 10 regions, with vacancies in June 2016 up 46.9 per cent compared to June 2015.

Priority One projects manager Annie Hill says if these figures reflect the growth of new jobs then it's great news for the local economy.

'Because it means businesses are confident in their medium to long term future and are taking on new staff,” she explains.

'In addition, new jobs reflect the increasing number of businesses that are moving here as well as new start-ups that are employing people. New job growth also means that our economic growth is more sustainable in terms of the medium to long term.”

Annie says this is particularly the case if job growth is in higher value jobs in high value industries.

But she hopes the number of vacancies does not reflect employers struggling to find the skilled and unskilled staff they need.

'This means their businesses are working at less than optimum productivity as they are understaffed,” says Annie.

Across New Z, vacancies rose by 1.2 per cent in June 2016, and by 13.5 per cent over the year.

'The growth in vacancies reflects a broad-based improvement in business sentiment,” says MBIE's Labour Market Trends Acting Manager Ram SriRamaratnam.

Vacancies were also up in seven of the eight industry groups monitored by the MBIE, with the hospitality and tourism industry experiencing the strongest rise with 3.2 per cent.

The occupation groups with the largest increases were machinery drivers and operators (up 2.8 per cent) and technicians and trades (up 2.1 per cent).

To read the full report visit the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website.