We Say – Migrants needed

Migrants needed

Businesses in Mahurangi and Kaipara are finding it nearly impossible to find employees. Where previously they would normally receive 30 to 40 applications for a job, it is now not unusual to receive none.

They’ve hired students and parents with young children in part-time roles, but they still need full-time workers to keep their businesses functioning. There is a pool of migrants ready to work, but businesses can’t hire them or don’t have the resources to navigate the onerous visa application process. Rodney is even worse hit because the bar for migrants to work in the Auckland region is higher.

We need to scrap the unnecessary bureaucracy and skills criteria and allow any hospitality worker with a job that pays at least $27 an hour to be given a visa. That’s the equivalent of $56,000 per annum, and some employers have indicated that they would pay more. If an employer is willing to pay such a good wage for a chef de partie or front of house staff, there is an evident and desperate need.

But where are all the Kiwi workers, you ask? There’s a national discussion at the moment about the New Zealand labour shortage – evidenced by the unemployment rate plunging to four per cent in the last quarter. It’s the sharpest quarterly reduction since employment statistics were first kept in 1986. The Government has perhaps been a victim of its own success, with 28,000 new jobs created in the last quarter. The average pay is $34.50 an hour, or $72,000 a year.

It’s great for Kiwis, but not great for businesses who have been left in the lurch. The hospitality industry in Rodney relying on migrant workers is nothing new. The cost of living in Mahurangi, especially housing, is simply too high for Kiwis to be motivated to move here and work in a cafe.

But visitors on working holiday visas who come to enjoy the area and work at the same time, or migrants seeking better opportunities than they can find at home, are willing to pick up the slack. Why not enable them, for the benefit of everyone?