No Quick Fix For New Zealand’s Labour Market Mess

The Covid-19 pandemic has put everything on hold – especially businesses. In the ongoing situation, no one wants to run/start a new business. Some of the well-established and old businesses are also struggling. Most companies are waiting for long-term solutions as no one can rely on continued availability of migrant workers due to closed borders and frequent shifting of goalposts by Immigration New Zealand (INZ).

The government is working continuously to formulate new policies to boost kiwi employment that will favour local recruitment. For example, in October, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) changed the process for hiring migrant workers under the Essential Skills Work Visa category.. To give Kiwis the first crack at jobs, the MSD created regional lists of occupations with an oversupply of local job seekers.

To concur with this, MSD said they would issue a skills match report to support an employer’s visa application for migrant workers to rectify the previously failed list. On the other hand, companies say that under the revised system, the MSD rarely provides skills match reports to support visa applications if the role remains on the oversupply list.

No one knows when this tug-of-war will end as COVID-19 is getting stronger day-by-day with new variants emerging.

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