Rotorua has one of New Zealand's highest unemployment rates while Tauranga is in the midst of a jobs boom. Carmen Hall investigates why and what is being done to fill the gaps. She finds an underbelly of intense competition where poaching is rife and companies are re-examining how best to
Rotorua's unemployment rate among NZ's highest but is the tide turning?
Rotorua has a high unemployment rate but work is underway to change that. Photo / Andrew Warner
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He was offered a roofing apprenticeship with Nathan Shaw, who had gone to the course with fellow tradies looking for staff.
Tama is now in his second year of the apprenticeship.
"My job is awesome and the crew I work with are great.
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''Not a lot of people get these opportunities. I want to have my own business one day and employ my own staff.
Tama's path to employment is an example of how agencies across the region are trying to address Rotorua's high unemployment rate despite a jobs boom.
The ministry flagged Rotorua and was working with employers to shift more of its people off benefits as job listings in the city have jumped.
Statistics New Zealand's December Labour Force Survey estimated about 6.4 per cent of people in Rotorua didn't have jobs. Nationally, the unemployment rate is 3.2 per cent.
Trade Me Jobs sales director Matt Tolich said according to its latest quarterly report for 2021 Rotorua had a 24 per cent increase in job listings compared with the same period in the year before.
The categories in Rotorua that had the largest percentage increases in Q4 last year were automotive, up 81 per cent, construction and roading, up 46 per cent, and transport and logistics, up 39 per cent.
The most popular job in Rotorua in Q4 2021 was for a Kmart team member - it had 2030 views in its time onsite.
Tolich said Trade Me conducted a survey last month and 33 per cent of Kiwis said they would consider relocating to the Bay of Plenty, making it the most popular New Zealand region to relocate to, followed by Canterbury.
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''Kiwi job hunters told us they are set to take advantage of the favourable job market. Nearly 60 per cent of Kiwis are keeping an eye out for a new job or would be open to a role if the opportunity came up.''
'I'm all about employing locals'
Tama's boss, Nathan Shaw, left New Zealand to complete his roofing apprenticeship and spent 12 years in Australia before relocating to Christchurch, where he worked in the earthquake-ravaged Red Zone.
''I saw a lot of bad stuff. It was really eye-opening.''
When the opportunity arose to move to the Bay of Plenty to extend his business, he jumped at the chance and ''the rest is history''.
Now, Shaw has four businesses including The Roofing Shed, Roofing, Design and Build and Wild Games Meets NZ. He employs 19 staff and has roofing contracts nationwide with several councils.
The tradie and businessman is an advocate for giving people a chance.
He has worked with the ministry and taken people off the dole and into apprenticeships.
''What I am trying to drum into these guys is to be a little bit like me and think outside the box. Think of the next stage when you come out of your apprenticeship and what you want to do next like sub-contracting or being a sole trader.''
''If I can teach them and help them out along the way that is enough fulfilment for me.
''I am all about employing locals.''
'No point in complaining about unemployment levels'
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chief executive Bryce Heard said there was no point in complaining about unemployment levels, or the "employability" of some of today's job seekers.
''That will not help to solve the problem.''
However, according to the latest ministry figures, there are about 5000 people currently on Job Seeker benefits in Rotorua, representing more than 10 per cent of the working-age population.
He said there were many good organisations helping to get people ready for employment and ''we are not the experts at that''. But the chamber was helping employers [its members] to find and employ the people that they need to run their businesses.
The Bridges To Work programme was jointly funded by BayTrust, Rotorua Trust and the Ministry of Social Development which invested $37,500 each.
Heard said their goals were two-fold.
The first was to give a better understanding of what employers were looking for and the second was to connect job seekers with job opportunities at its members' workplaces.
Employers had jobs but could not find the right people with the right skills.
Some tourism businesses had also closed or were running on skeleton staff.
''That has definitely had an impact and is one of the reasons Rotorua's unemployment rate is higher than the rest of the Bay.''
Rotorua Economic Development chief executive Andrew Wilson said once completed, the Waiariki Spa and the QE Health and Wellness Spa at the lakefront would provide plenty of work.
There was also a significant amount of construction work in the pipeline given the commercial and housing developments planned for Rotorua which would have a "flow-on effect".
Wilson said he noticed a major increase in the number of professional vacancies in roles such as accountancy and administration.
"It's crazy": Job recruitment agents on market and Covid
"Diabolical" and "crazy".
That's how 1st Call Recruitment managing director Phill van Syp described the job market despite people isolating for Omicron.
''We are 30 per cent down on turnover (due to Omicron) compared to the same time last year but once people get out of quarantine we will be back to smashing it. It's diabolical but we just have to suck it up and get on with it.''
He said there were so many jobs from ''top to bottom''.
Roading, infrastructure, administration, manufacturing, and construction were still screaming out for staff.
"No way businesses that have retrenched during hard times will be able to attract the same talent"
New Zealand was ranked in the top three for productivity in the 1980s in the OECD. Now, ''we have now dropped to the bottom quartile''.
Productivity People managing director Geerten Lengkeek said there was a lack of innovation and automation and some firms that had not looked at measuring and improving their productivity, often had efficiency around 30 to 50 per cent.
Other businesses that made productivity their competitive advantage often run at 80 to 90 per cent efficient.
In his view, he said New Zealand did not have ''a labour shortage but more an interesting jobs shortage''.
''Organisations that do people productivity well do not suffer from the 'great resignation' and even in the downturns and Covid lockdowns, these firms have continued employment contracts rather than taking a short-term view of letting people go to reduce costs.''
''There is no way businesses that have retrenched during hard times will ever be able to attract the same talent when things pick up and additional staff is needed. Firms that have a strong social contract with their teams are repaid that investment by supportive staff with superior performance, and in turn become industry leaders.''
The others won't fill roles or are forced to accept staff of mediocre ability and motivation, she said.
''Rather than waste breath on blaming external factors such as closed borders or disinterest Kiwi workers, these firms need to learn from the best amongst us.''
''Don't try to 'cut costs towards prosperity' but create an environment where productivity is an outcome of the culture. This is true at any time, but ever more impactful in these dire times.''
Staff retention: 'In our business, supply is people'
Holland Beckett Law partner Ken Hawkes said the company was concerned about losing its biggest assets to other firms or industries and ''retaining and growing staff is the firm's number one priority''.
''Economists are reporting that businesses need to concentrate on supply rather than sales. In our business, supply is people. Without lawyers, and the teams that support them, we can't deliver legal services to our clients.''
''Looking after our staff during the 2020 lockdown was the best thing we ever did. Nobody knew how the economy was going to hold up. We took the view that we should pay staff 100 per cent during lockdown whether they could work from home or not.
''We also made sure we did the right thing by paying staff an allowance for their home office expenses. We needed their home and internet connection to run our business so it seemed fair to reimburse them for that.''
At the moment Holland Beckett Law was recruiting for a legal secretary, intermediate commercial/property solicitor, and intermediate/senior litigation solicitor in Tauranga, and a commercial/property graduate and solicitor in Whakatāne.
40,000 new jobs in Tauranga in next 30 years
Priority One chief operating officer Greg Simmonds said Tauranga was growing jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the country.
''Our population is ageing so the proportion of working-age people will get lower, there's a mismatch between what people are choosing to study and future job creation and our cost of living is relatively high.''
There were about 100,000 jobs in Tauranga at the moment and it expected another 40,000 jobs to be created in the next 30 years.
Tauranga's economy had diversified, meaning means these jobs would be across a range of sectors including health and education, construction/trades, professional, managerial and technology, and agriculture, he said.
The jobs being created were also more skilled which would help lift average incomes.
Priority One was involved with Ara Rau – Pathways to Work, a skills and employment hub that was a key part of its regional workforce strategy.
In the last 12 months, the economic development organisation engaged with more than 1200 job-seekers and helped more than 200 of those into training and employment.
Ministry: Most on the dole want to work
Most of those on the benefit want to work and those who struggled to get jobs found the labour market difficult to access.
That is the view of the ministry's regional commissioner Mike Bryant, who said that was the reason it was engaging with industry and employers who were prepared to support those traditionally struggling to connect to jobs.
Complexities for some include the seasonal labour market, availability of transport, hours, weather, childcare, accommodation and the casual nature of the work which ''means some job opportunities may not work for them''.
By the end of last month, there were 19,218 people in the Bay of Plenty on Job Seeker support. Bryant said 11,000 people had moved into off the benefit and into work in the last financial year.
As of December, 3013 Rotorua people moved off the benefit into employment.
