New Zealand employers struggled to fill about 50 per cent of job vacancies in 2011, with a squeeze on engineers, skilled trade workers and sales representatives, according to ManpowerGroup's latest talent shortage survey.
Kiwi employers having difficult filling key positions increased 11 percentage points to 48 per cent last year. That's well above the global average of 34 per cent and Asia-Pacific's average of 45 per cent. Japanese employers experienced the most difficulty on 81 per cent, while Chinese employers had a much higher success rate on 23 per cent.
"With fields such as engineering, IT and skilled trades set to boom in the coming years, encouraging local uptake into these industries should be a top focus for policy makers, educators and employers," Lincoln Crawley, managing director of ManpowerGroup Australia and New Zealand said in a statement. "The (Christchurch) rebuild is going to put a huge amount of pressure on the local labour market, with the estimated need for workers outstripping the available local talent pool."
Canterbury has outpaced Auckland to gain the top spot in year on year growth, according to the National Bank's regional trends survey for the March quarter.
The region experienced at 4.7 per cent increase in employment for the quarter, while the number of residential building consents rose 34 per cent, according to data from Statistics New Zealand. The ANZ's regional job advertisements series for the region hit a record high, up 24 per cent in the December quarter.
