Sixteen trades have been listed as suffering from acute skill shortages, among them bakers, butchers and motor mechanics.
A Department of Labour survey to find skill shortage problems discovered that some occupations have a fill rate below 30 per cent and that not enough new people were joining the workforce to fill vacant positions.
However, pay and conditions for certain jobs such as hairdressing and boatbuilding played some part in putting people off entering those trades at all, said the report.
The majority of employers interviewed in the baking trade said the long and unsociable hours they are required to work puts people off. Some bakers, said the report, get up at 3am to start a 15-hour shift.
Some people enter the boat building trade with views of working on large vessels and being a part of the lucrative marine industry only to leave because of 'unpleasant working conditions'.
The report says that while young people are attracted by the glamour of yachting, particularly in post-America's Cup New Zealand, boat builders sometimes work in dusty and dirty conditions.
Hairdressers were difficult to recruit because wages were substantially lower than the trade average and there was evidence from many employers of trained hairdressers who refused to accept jobs at current wage rates and because of working conditions.
Hairdressers can suffer with health problems associated with their backs, hands and arms and there is also the question of the chemicals they use to treat and style hair.
The causes of skills shortages are varied says the report but include a drop in people entering the trades in the 1990s and low training rates at fully trade-qualified levels.
Other factors mentioned by employers include the winding down of many government-based apprentice training initiatives, economic recession, and the rising proportion of young people embarking on tertiary academic study in New Zealand. These shortages are expected to persist in the short term says the report and with many industry sectors and employers reporting skill and labour shortages, the situation is bound to be wider than the 16 trade occupations reported on.
Skills shortage - the top 16: automotive electrician; baker; boat builder; bricklayer; butcher; cabinet maker; carpenter; diesel mechanic; electrician; fitter and turner; fitter and welder; hairdresser; motor mechanic; panel beater; plumber; sheetmetal worker.
Skill shortages listed
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