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Northland is brimming with jobs but vacancies are piling up as they outstrip the number of jobseekers. Photo / NZME
School Lunch Sandwich Artist takes the honour of most popular online job listing in Northland so far this year, having garnered almost 2000 views on Trade Me.
The role is one of hundreds advertised as
Trade Me Jobs sales director Matt Tolich said according to its latest quarterly report ending March 31, Northland had a 34 per cent increase in job listings compared to the same period last year.
The report was based on an analysis of 81,984 vacancies across the country advertised on Trade Me.
Industries with the largest surge in online job advertisements, when compared with the same time last year, were retail; construction and roading, transport and logistics; and manufacturing and operations.
Tolich pointed toward the growing list of people relocating to Northland when asked what
has driven the increase.
“As we see more Kiwis work from home, moving to regions that are close to main centres, like Northland, is massively appealing to improve work-life balance and lower living costs.
“We know Northland is currently experiencing significant population growth, which means there is a need to bolster infrastructure in the region,” he said.
“This is reflected in the huge increases we’ve seen in the construction and roading, transport and logistics, and manufacturing and operations categories.”
Stats NZ data showed there were 18,824 more people in Northland in the three years to June last year, taking the region’s population to 197,900. The 10.5 per cent increase since 2018 is the biggest jump over that period in more than a quarter of a century.
Tolich noted the potential flip side of the increase, which was how the boom may also contribute to the challenge of finding workers.
“We’re still facing a massive candidate shortage which will not be alleviated until the borders are open again, making it a tricky time for employers to attract talent,” he said.
However,it appears many Northlanders are plugging those gaps. In 2021, 10,254 people in Northland had moved off benefits and into work – the highest figure recorded since 2016.
Data showed that as of March 25 this year, 9.9 per cent of Northland’s working-age population – 10,842 people – received Jobseeker Support, down from 11,865 for the same week last year.
Statistics New Zealand data showed for the December quarter, Northland’s unemployment rate was 3.3 per cent, slightly above the national rate of 3.2 per cent.
Tolich was optimistic for the region.
“Northland has a lot to offer, with beautiful weather, a great lifestyle and close proximity to Auckland.”
Added to the alluring package was an increase in salary in some sectors.
The largest pay increase for the first quarter of this year in Northland was in construction and roading, where the average salary increased by 23 per cent year-on-year to $73,376.
In the region’s automotive category, the average salary increased by 14 per cent year-on-year for Q1 to $62,923.
Overall, the average salary in Northland is currently $63,727 – a 5 per cent increase when compared to the same time last year.
Far North skipper Roger Rawlinson has found it harder and harder to find good workers over the course of his ongoing 35-year fishing career.
“People in the Far North don’t want to move too far away from their families or their communities. They don’t want to shift to the city,” he said.
Rawlinson has taken the challenge in his stride by teaming up with local hapū to get people in the Far North aged 16 to 24 aboard a new fishing vessel, the Hikurangi.
RMD Marine launched the thoughtfully refurbished Hikurangi as a training vessel for Far North youth.
“Getting good workers is a struggle but I’ve decided to train them up myself,” Rawlinson said. “They want to find work closer to home so I’m helping to facilitate that.”
Young people can fully test the waters of a career at sea as the three cabins and nine bunk beds aboard allow for longer excursions.
The Hikurangi has also been kitted out with the latest in marine technology so young people can get a taste of more than just fishing.
“They can see what it’s like to be an engineer at sea or work in refrigeration, electrical … everything has to be serviced and maintained – a lot goes into a vessel – so they don’t just have to be a fisherman. It shows them you can follow one of the other career paths,” Rawlinson said.
If at the end of their experience the young person decides it’s not for them “then it’s not for them and they can try something else and there are no hard feelings”.
The idea was born out of Rawlinson’s recognition that young people need better employment opportunities.
“If you don’t have experience then you’re stuffed because no one wants you unless you have experience and no one wants to give you that first opportunity.
“I prefer no experience. Then I can show them the right way from the outset,” he said.
“I’m looking for that young person that goes out fishing with Dad at the weekends but doesn’t know what to do in life but knows they don’t want to be in an office.”
Rawlinson said the opportunity not only serves the young person but also the marine industry, as it helps find the workers who are “gems”, who he knows are out there.
Direction Recruitment director Paula Kalkhoven works on both sides of the job market as she aims to match businesses with employees and vice versa.
And at the moment it’s “a candidate market” where they have the pick, she says.
“There’s heaps of work here, absolutely heaps of work. Anyone with a good background, good training, good experience – there’ll be something out there for them.”
Kalkhoven has seen the job market endure a recession followed by the pandemic during her 20 years in the industry.
“There was the build-up over the years [post recession] and obviously with Covid that shrank back down again.”
Businesses became uncertain about their future and paused their recruitment processes. For some, redundancies were unavoidable.
“Now over the last year and a half they’ve had to build their businesses up and it’s been amazing,” Kalkhoven said.
“Every business that I speak to is just going off, they’re just so busy and they can’t find qualified candidates.”
Trades with “hands-on roles” were “really suffering” as vacancies piled up.
“It’s always been the case but I feel like it’s more so recently,” Kalkhoven said.
Fortunately, she is seeing “good-quality people” – many of them young – with varied experience make their way north, aiding the expansion of Northland’s workforce.
“We’ve got a lot of people that are wanting to move out of the big cities or come back home. Finally, people are seeing ‘oh my god, it’s a great place to come’,” she said.
“You can definitely see a lot of change and it’s all positive as well, which is great.”
As long as businesses remain confident in Northland’s economy, jobs will continue to emerge, says Vaughan Cooper, acting CEO for the region’s economic development agency Northland Inc.
“If the economy is going well and a business is feeling confident, it thinks there’s an opportunity for it to keep growing and expanding then it needs to employ people.”
Which in turn strengthens the economy.
“Then as you employ those people they bring money into their household and they spend money in their community, and they spend money in those businesses. Essentially the money goes around,” Cooper said.
He described Northland’s economy as on the up.
“As a region we’re starting from a really low base – we’ve had a lack of investment, we have areas of significant deprivation, unemployment, all those kinds of things.
“But our economy is growing, it is improving … but it has a long way to go because of that starting position.”
Cooper predicted the most booming sectors – construction, healthcare, social assistance, public administration, education training, hairdressing salons and retail – will continue to expand.
“Those are the ones we’re seeing grow the most so you’d expect a lot of job growth in those sectors as well.”
However, two different experiences are unfolding in the economy and therefore, the job market.
“The tourism sector has found life very hard during the lockdowns but other parts of the economy, particularly infrastructure and the construction sector, had a real boost and it’s going really well,” Cooper said.
The key will be maintaining the region’s strengths – such as its primary sector – while building struggling industries.
“We have a real strength in our primary sector,” Cooper said. “We need to maintain and support that and not lose sight of that.”
Horticulture, forestry and marine manufacturing were all Northland strengths, Cooper pointed out.
“We need to maintain that whilst trying to build some of those other more innovative future-focused sectors.”
Fortunately, Northland has natural advantages in the form of a strong cultural narrative, natural environment, tourism, and even our sub-tropical climate will help drive industry, the economy, and eventually the job market.
“We’re working across a range of projects trying to ensure our economy is stable and thriving now and in the future. We’re championing infrastructure investments,” Cooper said.
He described how they help take opportunities – such as peanut farming in Kaipara – and test whether they’re commercially viable.
“We’re de-risking it, proving we can do it in a commercial sense and hoping someone will pick it up commercially and run with it.
“It’s sort of trying to get those industries and emerging opportunities to a point where they have a life of their own and they can go.”
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Emergency services arrived on the scene at around 3.30pm today.