New Zealand Immigration News

Yes say many of Auckland’s finance and accounting professionals.

Unemployment in New Zealand has increased, particularly on the North Island.

Most New Zealand businesses are paying significantly more in staff costs than a year ago.

It’s a excellent time for job seekers in New Zealand with many unfilled vacancies.

Businesses are having to pay more to match high paying government departments.

Participation rates in New Zealand’s workforce are now the highest since records began.

The average New Zealander’s working week shortened by 12 minutes in 2007 and pay rose by 3.5 percent.

Primary schools in New Zealand’s biggest city are so short of qualified teachers that they are considering recruiting candidates with poor English language skills.

New Zealand’s employers are facing record high levels of staff turnover and trying to hold on to employees by offering generous pay increases.

The average wage increase for all New Zealand employees was 4.5 per cent this year. Wage increases for unskilled employees averaged only 2.4 per cent while pay for skilled administrators and management increased by 6.6 per cent.

Around 1,000 primary school teaching places could be unfilled next year if New Zealand’s government keeps its pledge to cut new entrants’ class sizes from 23 to 18 children.

New Zealand has the same number of job vacancies as last year but the distribution of vacancies in terms of both skills and locations has shifted.

Tapping Northland’s mineral reserves could create thousands of new jobs in New Zealand’s far north.

From April 1 New Zealand’s workers are entitled to longer holidays. The minimum wage is also increased.

New Zealand’s finance minister has warned New Zealanders in the midst of a booming housing market that they can’t eat their houses.

Wages in New Zealand rose 3.2 percent during 2006. The “average” man now earns $920 per week and the “average” woman earns $735 per week.

New Zealand’s minimum wage will increase to $11.25 per hour in April 2007.

New Zealand’s Reserve Bank Governer has warned people not to expect further rises in house prices.

The Bank of New Zealand is encouraged by positive indications from the economy and its business confidence survey.

The skilled labour shortages that have hindered New Zealand’s employers for several years have eased in the last 12 months. Potential migrants should note that shortages are still well above historical averages.

The latest unemployment figures show a slight increase in the number of people out of work.

Some new immigrants say employers in New Zealand are discriminating against them.

Employment demand is currently positive in all of New Zealand’s employment sectors - some more so than others.

Newspaper jobs ads in New Zealand are down compared with last year. Vacancies for some types of work, such as IT, continue to increase. Advertised vacancies in Auckland are down sharply, while more vacancies are reported in Wellington. Overall, 7,583 jobs were advertised in New Zealand’s Newspapers in March 2006, down 8 percent on March last year.

4,000 places are available in New Zealand for a pilot seasonal work permit. The permit is intended to alleviate the country’s seasonal labour shortages.

New Zealand needs its fruit picked so badly that people who come as tourists can be approved to work as fruit pickers within 48 hours.

New Zealand’s employers face growing difficulties in recruiting IT staff. 74 skill-sets, (out of 140 analyzed), were found to be in shortage - an increase from 55 in 2004 and 13 in 2003.

The Department of Labour has surveyed skills shortages in New Zealand and discovered the country’s employers are crying out for skilled people.

A survey of over a thousand businesses carried out by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce this week discovered business confidence in Auckland has fallen to new lows.
Rising costs and declining profits are causing headaches for many businesses. The biggest concern of Chamber Chief Executive Michael Barnett was the continued use of interest rate hikes [...]

New Zealand’s demand for labour is still strong. The country’s unemployment rate fell from 3.6 to 3.4 percent in the September quarter - the lowest since the survey began in 1986 and the lowest in the developed world.
Statistics New Zealand says increasing numbers of people in full-time work drove employment growth.
The total labour [...]

Figures today from the government’s Statistical Office show New Zealander’s wages are growing at their highest rate for many years. There are two measures of wages:
   the Labour Cost Index - which showed wages up 3.1 percent in the year to September 2005.
   the Quarterly Employment Survey - which showed annual wage growth [...]

New Zealand has the most business-friendly regulations in the world says the World Bank.

Advertised vacancies in newspapers across New Zealand were up 9% in July, according to the Department of Labour.

Jobs ads in New Zealand reached an all time high in July, according to the ANZ bank.

Prime Minister Helen Clark and Immigration Minister Paul Swain said today that the government is launching new initiatives to bring expatriate New Zealanders up to date with job opportunities at home.

Figures from Statistics NZ today show unemployment fell 0.2 percent to 3.7 percent for the June quarter. New Zealand now has the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD.

Compared with last year, newspaper ads were down 5.5 percent and internet ads were up 43.6 percent.

The German Employment Service is to hold an employment expo to allow skilled Germans to meet NZ and Australian employers.

The National Bank’s May survey of business confidence has found employers’ concerns about the economy continue to grow.

Despite fears of a slowdown, New Zealand’s economy has performed creditably over the last three months.

One of the attractions of New Zealand for many migrants is its isolation. Another is its very small population.
Sitting in the South Pacific, boasting some of the planet’s most spectacular scenery, and located a long way from trouble spots and leaking Soviet nuclear submarines, New Zealand is one of the remotest places on earth. [...]

There are signs in today’s unemployment figures that the economy may be cooling.

More than 50 police officers from the UK have decided to make this country their home. They were recruited to Auckland via the work-to-residence policy

Yesterday we reported the National Bank’s business survey. The survey found employers are taking a gloomy view of the future. Figures released today, however, show job ads grew in March.

The National Bank’s April survey of business confidence has found employers are becoming reluctant to take on more staff. The jobs outlook in most sectors has turned negative.

New Zealand’s paid parental leave scheme will be available to the self-employed from 1 July 2006 according to Associate Labour Minister Ruth Dyson.

According to Staples Rodway, the average New Zealander has got a month to go before he or she earns a single cent for themselves - until May 24 in fact.