Wairarapa low wage jobs 'hard to fill'

Drake Wairarapa branch manager Leanne Welsh said many employers were having a hard time finding reliable minimum-wage workers.

Wairarapa employers are struggling to fill low-skilled roles, a recruitment specialist says.

According to Seek New Zealand figures, there was a 4 per cent increase in jobs advertised on the site in Wellington - which includes Wairarapa - in February compared with January. The latest February figure was a 9 per cent decrease on February 2014.

Drake Wairarapa branch manager Leanne Welsh said many employers were having a hard time finding reliable minimum-wage workers.

"Employers are getting plenty of applicants but, in the past few months, quality candidates have been few and far between," she said.

"The main issue is reliability. People need to be reliable and they need to be able to pass a drug test and have either an acceptable criminal history or no criminal history."

Jobs were, however, harder to come by for highly-skilled candidates, she said.

"There's a lot of people who are living in Wairarapa who would ideally like to work in Wairarapa but they're forced to commute to Wellington for good positions and good incomes.

"Highly-skilled roles have high numbers of applicants and then, because they're hard to come by, people tend to stay in the jobs for a long time. People in Wellington perhaps move around every 18 months but, in Wairarapa, if you get a good job, you hang on to it for five, 10 or 20 years."

Holding on to employees wasn't necessarily good for businesses, she said. "Keeping the same person for a long time can curb growth."

The latest Statistics New Zealand data showed there were 21,036 Wairarapa residents in the labour force as of the 2013 Census. This was an increase of 1125 from the 2006 Census and 2328 up from 2001.

Nationally, new job ads on Seek were up 3.7 per cent year-on-year but down 2.8 per cent on January. General manager Janet Faulding said growing economic confidence had pushed year-on-year listings up.

"Factors such as falling fixed mortgage rates and higher property prices are all contributing to optimism in the local economy," she said.

"The high performing housing markets of Auckland and Canterbury continue to have a positive impact on labour demand as both centres respond to housing demand. In addition, increased migration and high labour force participation have been driving growth in labour supply, another indicator of rising confidence in the local employment market."

The education and training industry had the biggest increase in listings - up 18 per cent on February 2014.

Early childhood listings were up 43 per cent, primary teaching listings were up 150 per cent and secondary teaching listings were up 65 per cent.

Ms Faulding said the education advertisement growth was most significant in Wellington and Auckland. Canterbury was still affected by the closure of many schools post-earthquakes.

The 2013 Census data showed more people were working full-time when they were over 65 but the number of people working 50 hours or more in a week had dropped. NZME