Wellington, Feb 8 NZPA - Employment website Seek last month recorded its highest level of new job adverts for two years.

Job adverts in January were at their highest level since December 2008, Seek said today.

Seasonally adjusted, the Seek new job ads series rose 0.4 percent in January, following a 5 percent increase in December. New job ads were 20.3 percent higher than in January 2010.

Growth was primarily driven through increases across the North Island, with Wellington at 3.1 percent, Auckland at 0.9 percent, and the rest of North Island at 0.9 percent.

Job ads in Canterbury fell 2.3 percent, after a surge the previous month, Seek said.

Seek senior executive Helen Souness said February was shaping up well with more than 15,000 new jobs on seek.co.nz last week.

"The growth in job ads coupled with the recently reported businesses intentions to hire in the future and increasing consumer confidence -- these combine to all point to an improving economic environment," she said.

The Seek employment index -- the ratio of new job ads to the number of applications for those jobs -- rose 6.2 percent last month, as the number of jobs listed on the website rose and the number of applications for the roles declined.

The growth in the index in January was the highest rise in the past four months, and was 19 percent up on this time last year, Ms Souness said.

"This is another sign of the labour market strengthening and improving conditions for job seekers."