Work visa arrivals shot up to almost 20,000 in September

Economy / news

Almost 200,000 people arrived in New Zealand on work visas in the 12 months to September

17th Oct 23, 10:06am by Greg Ninness

<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-668929p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">ChameleonsEye</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Shutterstock.com</a>

The number of people arriving in New Zealand on work visas shot up to just under 20,000 in September.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment show 19,530 people arrived in Aotearoa in September, up from 17,436 in August and 14,238 in July.

September's arrival numbers were the highest monthly figures since March when 20,445 arrived.

The number of overseas workers coming to NZ is growing strongly after almost drying up completely during the pandemic lockdown, but there there is still some way to go before they get back up to pre-Covid levels.

In the 12 months to September 2019, nearly a quarter of a million (241,749) people came to NZ on work visas. That number then dropped to 129,585 in the year to September 2020 and just 6078 in the year to September 2021. It then began to pick up again to 39,501 in the year to September 2022, and 196,584 in the 12 months to September this year.

The total number of people in NZ on work visas is also beginning to rise again, after falling away sharply when the government introduced the 2021 Residence Visa Scheme. This saw 207,462 people, to the end of September this year, who had mostly been in NZ for several years on work visas, transfer to residence visas.

That saw the number of people on work visas decline from a peak of 222,039 at the end of March 2020, to 108,333 at the end of September last year.

By the end of September this year that number had increased to 162,459.

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35 Comments

by Retired-Poppy | 17th Oct 23, 10:23am 1697491389

Will Work Visa arrivals look as flash throughout 2024? Catch up is practically over, vacancies fast getting filled, applicants per vacancies starting to balloon and unemployment set to rise....

by Zwifter | 17th Oct 23, 10:53am 1697493202

Did you look at the graph ? Pretty clear trend since 2013. The worlds going to hell in a handbasket, you can only expect more and more legal immigrants and one day we also have to start dealing with the illegal immigrants.

by Retired-Poppy | 17th Oct 23, 11:23am 1697495007

Winnie will no doubt have some input going forward....

by singautim | 17th Oct 23, 11:46am 1697496363

Like he did last time?

We had an election without an immigration debate. It will not be debated in parliament. Yet it underlies so many issues. Obviously housing but also how many nurses will we train and how many import. Or ability to promise free dentistry. Or hitting our international commitments to climate change that unfortunately were never set to be 'per capita'. Or productivity. Or tax base for ever increasing number of pensioners.

An honest debate is long overdue. It would be contentious and risks xenophobia but swept under the carpet it is more dangerous.

by mfd | 17th Oct 23, 12:39pm 1697499576

I am surprised how little engagement there is in the discussion - very little interest around the water cooler, even from those who are concerned about house prices.

I'm not sure the scale of immigration in this country is well understood in the general population. I'm a migrant myself and certainly not calling for shutting the borders, but it's a huge blind spot in our national discussion.

by singautim | 17th Oct 23, 4:59pm 1697515161

I'm migrant too and with what is called a visible migrant family. It seems as if only migrants themselves are brave enough to discuss the issue.

Migrants aren't like plagues - all bad with some worse than others. Nor like lottery wins - all good with some better than others. We are more like he rain - almost essential but as NZ discovered earlier this year beware the deluge.

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 11:41am 1697496119

Pfft, whatever. A very smart man told me no one would want to move to NZ.

by Retired-Poppy | 17th Oct 23, 12:34pm 1697499249

Was it the same man who, just six months ago, posted he wouldn't have taken on any significant financial obligations since Jan 2020? Juicy bit of forecasting right there :)

Comedy aside, we all have our views and often events make fools of all of us all at one time or another - aye.

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 12:58pm 1697500718

The difference is, there's plenty of people wishing they'd made that call in 2020.

And a few hundred thousand that refute the other statement.

by Advisor | 17th Oct 23, 12:44pm 1697499860

Despite all its shortcomings, Auckland is still a much better place to live in than Mumbai or Manila. You are not much smarter than that man though if you fall for the false political mantra that a virtually limitless number of low-wage migrants desperate to move to NZ is somehow a sign of NZ's economic success.

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 1:00pm 1697500833

That's not a mantra I fall for.

But it's just fiscal reality that we either take more workers, or the ones already here suffer the realities of depopulation, which no society has effectively managed.

by Timmyboy | 17th Oct 23, 10:29am 1697491791

We are going to have to cover the farms around our cities with concrete and real estate to accommodate this mass importation of primates.

by Beanie | 17th Oct 23, 10:53am 1697493215

It's clear the last government let it get out of control.

by Timmyboy | 17th Oct 23, 10:58am 1697493526

And the new one has it as proposed policy.

by singautim | 17th Oct 23, 11:51am 1697496717

Andrew Little's labour party had a gentle reduction in immigration quotas as policy. Made sense for a union official - they know the effect of low-paid immigration on wages and training for ordinary workers. However he was replaced by 'be kind' Jacinda who was more successful in getting votes.

All parties and the average voter claim to want high skill immigrants but then are just happy to have the immigrants as checkout operators and in labouring jobs.

by GraemeRansom4234 | 17th Oct 23, 11:48am 1697496510

Do these figures include working holiday visas?

by K.W. | 17th Oct 23, 2:49pm 1697507341

Yes, there were 31,000 of those as of September. However, it does not include Student Visas, the recipients of which are also entitled to work in NZ. There are another 55,000 student visa holders.

by K.W. | 17th Oct 23, 12:15pm 1697498106

Meanwhile over 361,000 New Zealanders are on the benefit. 104,000 of them Work Ready (up from 64,000 in Sept 17 when Labour took over). Another 75,000 on the Single Parent Benefit (up from 59,000 in 2017).

Now you know why people still vote for Labour/Greens/Maori.

Fun Fact: Labour stopped publishing benefit statistics last month. Usually they are updated weekly. How's that for our "most transparent Government ever" lol.

by GraemeRansom4234 | 17th Oct 23, 12:29pm 1697498946

Years ago, a family member used to own a New World Supermarket. He was always complaining that there were too many people on benefits. I said to him that he could do something about it by employing some of them. His response was that he did not want to employ those sort of people.

It should also be remembered that in the past, maybe 50 years ago, lots of people with mental health issues were in institutions. They are now in the community and make up some of these numbers. Also many employers, particularly government departments would carry a few people who would never get a job in the environment that exists in 2023.

by K.W. | 17th Oct 23, 12:40pm 1697499635

These days beneficiaries dont want to work - its far more lucrative to be on a benefit and have a side hustle of committing crimes that you will never be punished for. An unemployed family with 2 kids makes $63,000 a year on the benefit - thats more than the $61,000 median wage in NZ. Combined with no sanctions any more for not looking for work or turning up for interviews, and being on a benefit is a cushy lifestyle option. Especially when KO throws in a brand new house for $50 a week rent.

by the Joneses | 17th Oct 23, 12:59pm 1697500780

Cool story.

by singautim | 17th Oct 23, 5:03pm 1697515414

Make it a universal child benefit then your median wage earner would get most of that benefit on top of the $61,000 - an incentive to keep working. Admin costs and rorts reduced.

by Nzdan | 17th Oct 23, 3:56pm 1697511368

I worked at New World and McDonalds during my school years alongside many other school aged people. Whereas today, the same jobs seem to be occupied by migrant workers. There's probably an argument to be had that they have a better work ethic, but working those jobs was a great way for young people to build a good work ethic, maybe at a slight productivity sacrifice for highly profitable businesses that do nothing more than microwave burgers or store boxes of cereal on shelves.

by Independent_Observer | 17th Oct 23, 1:50pm 1697503806

High inflation and mass immigration across the anglosphere = reduce living standards for everyone - except for perhaps the very wealthy (e.g. debt free multiple property owners etc).

And yet it appears to be a plan that isn't publicly talked about. Why?

If only one country was doing it, it would just be an anomaly, but it isn't - it is the same across the western world.

Looks like self sabotage for the many, for the benefit of the few.

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 2:26pm 1697505996

Not just the Western world, basically anywhere urbanised.

Non Anglo countries going through the same low birthrate phenomenon appear to be faring worse. So less a case of enriching a few as making it less intolerable to the remaining majority.

by singautim | 17th Oct 23, 5:07pm 1697515655

Maybe there are universal forces at work such as low birthrates and high benefit rates in developed countries but all the more reason to plan immigration and population. Just compare the problems Sweden and Denmark have had with immigrants - the former with a plan to be a leading example of a multi-cultural society and the latter striving to stay as Danish as possible.

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 6:04pm 1697519060

We have been planning population for quite some time. Working For Families for instance, which is some 20 years old now, is a state's attempt to promote childbirth amoung working families. It didn't work though, just as it doesn't work most places where it's been tried - you get a slight uptick initially in births, that quickly peters off.

We are debating something that has a very long tail, in potentially it's mid point. I actually think the taxation and expenditure ramifications of aging populations is so dire, the authorities don't want to promote the situation at all, and are trying to offset that with migration.

Basically, it's a runaway train and the conductors are just pulling every lever they can to try and not have the whole thing derail.

by Independent_Observer | 17th Oct 23, 5:25pm 1697516745

Less intolerable to the majority - lol is that why real GDP is shrinking in these nations - meaning living standards are getting worse for the many while we adopt these policies! And while existing infrastructure get smashed/overwhelmed and house prices stay exceptionally high...

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 6:02pm 1697518932

It's worser for countries that are more homogenous though. Italy for instance, is properly screwed to a point of seemingly no return. Not enough earners to pay for existing services, declining business activity, even less children being born - their birthrate is now .8. And because the place is so sick, and speaks a more obscure language than English, can't even attract enough migrants. Or at best, illegals from Africa.

by Independent_Observer | 17th Oct 23, 9:21pm 1697530908

I’d happily move to and live in Italy - in many respects I like it far more than NZ.

It might be screwed as you put it, but we are in the process of doing the same here (and the US and Canada and Australia…)

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 9:43pm 1697532222

I'd probably pick Japan from the selection of homogenous monocultures in permanent decline, better infrastructure and generally better living standards.

But either is only from your and my positions, the plight of the average Italian or Japanese worker, and available opportunity for class mobility, is worse.

We are undergoing a similar process, possibly in slower motion due to our greater ability to offset the decline with migration. But it's also due to a confluence of factors; stalled growth for mature economies, transition into consumer society, changed nature of female behaviour, unwinding if global peace and trade, etc.

The possibility for a reversal so we have the sort of prosperity NZ had for a narrow window for around 30 years after WW2, is fairly low. From a relative position though, it's a less worse prospect than most.

by swingtrader | 17th Oct 23, 10:05pm 1697533552

Wow, really? My family just moved to Italy in August, to a small town in Tuscany. No regrets obv.

When I walk around I see a population living a very enviable lifestyle, enjoying the cafe before school, aperitivo in the evening. Why? Because they didn't have to sell their first child to pay for a roof over their head. There's excess income to keep small businesses alive and prosperous.

And our rental here is like a million times more liveable than our rental in Auckland (and way cheaper). Oh, and I'm earning substantially more than I earned in Auckland working for businesses across Europe. The work is in fact abundant!

Now. when I read about what's happening in NZ from afar, I think about which country is "properly screwed to a point of seemingly no return" and it's not Italy that comes to mind.

By the way, "worser" isn't a word.

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 10:29pm 1697534965

As I said in my later post, it's great if you're in an arbitrage position to relocate there from a healthier economy. Sorta like going on holiday, everything seems amazing if you're only a visitor. You've also moved to one of the less impoverished areas.

But it's worse to be born as an average Italian than an average Kiwi. Greater inequality, difficult climate to do business in, higher unemployment, super high government debt, lower net incomes, can't hold down a government for more than a couple of years.

Lovely place to visit though.

by HouseMouse | 17th Oct 23, 6:14pm 1697519664

Completely absurd.

How many people left?

by Pa1nter | 17th Oct 23, 6:21pm 1697520081

Shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone. Turn off migration taps for 3 years, it'll be a flood when it starts up again. With extra sprinkles due to how much non tradeable inflation that's occurred.

I believe the net figure is around 120k.