N.Z. worker emigration to Australia may cause labour shortage

As reported by Business Week, a record emigration of New Zealanders in 2011 seeking jobs and higher pay in Australia is risking the country’s earthquake-affected economy weak to a labour shortage during reconstruction.

A record high of 45,863 New Zealand citizens permanently relocated to Australia by Dec. 31 2011, according to a recent report by Statistics New Zealand. The number of citizens who chose to return was the lowest statistic in three years.

The mass exodus of workers indicates the nation might face a skills shortage when it requires labourers for approximately five years of rebuilding work in Christchurch after a series of earthquakes that hit the South Island city since September 2010.

Central bank Governor Alan Bollard, who will be monitoring the reconstruction and assessing when to increase interest rates, has said the massive flight means firms need to compete to secure and retain staff.

David Peterson, who is general manager of Fletcher Earthquake Recovery in Christchurch, said that the city reconstruction efforts would suffer inflation around labour and retention of workers.

The company, which is a unit of Fletcher Building Ltd. (New Zealand’s biggest construction firm), is managing around 3,500 labourers in a project to rebuild minimum 100,000 homes in the next four years. There sill be a need for twice as many labourers within two years, said Peterson, who is already recruiting in Britain and Ireland.