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A third of New Zealand businesses say they plan to lay off staff or reduce their hours - but a third still have a shortage of skilled staff despite the recession.
A Business NZ survey of 647 businesses, conducted to prepare for Friday's Jobs Summit, also found that only 10 per cent of those with apprentices plan to lay them off.
Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said business would use the survey to push for more help from the summit for apprenticeships and other training schemes to give redundant workers the skills they need to fill the skill shortages.
"What better time to invest in taking some of that slack in the labour market and giving them some skills to get them up the ladder?" he said.
Business NZ also unveiled its own ideas for the Jobs Summit yesterday, including a Government subsidy for apprentices attending block courses at polytechnics and a requirement for 10 per cent of the funding for new infrastructure projects to go into apprenticeships and other on-site training.
Both ideas echo similar proposals from the Council of Trade Unions.
The Business NZ survey covered large and small businesses and found that 33 per cent have "more staff than they need". The biggest numbers with surplus staff were in manufacturing (42 per cent), wholesaling, retailing and hospitality (38 per cent) and construction and utilities (34 per cent).
Of that 33 per cent, almost two-thirds (19 per cent of the total sample) plan to make staff redundant, with most of those also planning to reduce hours for remaining staff. The other third plan only to reduce hours.
But 38.5 per cent of the total sample also said they had a skill shortage.
Industry Training Federation director Jeremy Baker, who will lead a strong team of industry training organisations (ITOs) at the summit, said industry advocated a short-term $50 million "industry skills recovery fund" to be allocated by each ITO to wage subsidies or bonuses for completed apprenticeships.
