Employing Skilled Workers
The official unemployment rate in Canterbury is now only 3.3% according to Statistics New Zealand – this is considered to be “full employment”. This is the lowest since September 2008 and you will find that it is becoming harder and harder to find New Zealanders to fill skilled roles. For those of you forecasting growth in the coming months, it would pay you to start thinking of strategies to access skilled migrant labour – be that from other places within New Zealand, or from overseas. You will need to allow for a longer time to fill positions and may need to invest in moving good candidates to Canterbury. Other actions you will need to consider are placing job ads automatically with WINZ (through the Canterbury Development Hub) so you can get the approval needed for Immigration to approve recruitment from overseas; and putting more effort into retaining the staff you have.