Work visa arrivals down sharply in April

Property / news

Big drop in the number of overseas workers arriving in New Zealand during April

12th May 23, 9:13am by Greg Ninness

There was a significant decline in the number of people arriving in New Zealand on work visas last month.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) show 15,873 people arrived in NZ on work visas in April, down by 22% compared to the 20,442 that arrived in March.

That brought an end to the steady increase in overseas workers arriving evident since March last year.

It has been difficult to pick medium to long term trends in overseas workers coming to NZ since their numbers were reduced to just a few hundred a month between April 2020 and March 2022 by pandemic restrictions.

That created a pent up demand for foreign workers which saw their arrivals rise to 20,442 in March this year.

However the latest dip suggests the pent up demand for workers may now be reducing and numbers are returning to more normal levels.

As well as the 22% decline in the number arriving last month, the number of work visas approved by MBIE dropped even more sharply, from 28,065 in March, to 19,776 in April. That's down 29.5%.

The number of arrivals on work visas now appears to be normalising at or near pre-pandemic levels and in April this year was down just 3.4% compared to April 2019.

Changing economic conditions are also likely to affect the number of overseas workers arriving, particularly if the economy dips into recession, as many commentators expect.

For example, one industry that has been been hampered by a shortage of workers over the last few years has been the construction industry.

However the latest building consent figures suggest the industry could be heading for a sharp downward correction in activity later this year, which would likely result in job losses for existing workers and also reduce demand for overseas workers.

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31 Comments

by Von Metternich | 12th May 23, 9:52am 1683841933

If only the Labour government actually did something for the labouring classes by cutting off immigration to enable higher wage demands by workers. You know, something our governments did in the early 20th century to improve the conditions of workers.

by Shaft | 12th May 23, 11:50am 1683849055

Choke the supply of oveseas labour will inflate food prices by ship loads.

High prices will kill off tourism.?.

And inflation is the enemy of economy recovery

Get the job seekers working first!

by Retired-Poppy | 12th May 23, 12:03pm 1683849788

Pa1nter, what's your take on this? Are foreigners getting a better deal elsewhere? Australia perhaps?

by Shaft | 12th May 23, 12:24pm 1683851073

Queensland is expecting 200k. 6k nurses!

Aussie 1.58millon this year.

by Advisor | 12th May 23, 12:38pm 1683851916

If certain sectors of our economy such as tourism can't operate without low-wage workers, better we move on as a country to different export industries rather than feeding cheap migrants to the sector for their private gains while spreading the costs to the rest of the economy.

Works for the likes of Switzerland, Japan and Singapore who have high-value export sectors dominating their economies and picking up the output slack from lower wage tourism, hospo, etc.

I heard Luxon argue on a morning show that we need to lower wage thresholds (and let cheaper tourism/hospo workers) to unlock our "economic prosperity". Not a fan of Labour either but is too much to ask for words coming from our "business champ" of an Opposition leader to not defy common sense.

by agnostium | 12th May 23, 5:38pm 1683869883

He is clueless. National have become worse than Labour under his watch.

by HouseMouse | 12th May 23, 9:53am 1683841982

I called this.

The inflows will continue to shrink as the economy worsens.

I have also said a significant number will need to return to where they came from.

by redcows1 | 12th May 23, 11:03am 1683846190

I'm hopeful

by Advisor | 12th May 23, 12:36pm 1683851804

Employers in my sector are having to bend over backwards to attract "quality" overseas applicants for jobs that have been sitting vacant for months.

We probably need to move past the assumption that Canada, UK, US and Australia are our only competitors for the likes of engineers, medical professionals and tech workers. The likes of continental Europe, Far East and Lower Gulf regions seem to be soaking up plenty of global talent as well.

by K.W. | 12th May 23, 1:44pm 1683855869

I called this too. If we had a "migration boom" as the Govt claimed we would be seeing it in rising rents, shrinking vacancy rates, and rising house prices - in other words we would look exactly like Australia.

But passenger movements indicate a massive outflow of people from the country, 24k in March, 34k in April. I am expecting May to be negative as well.

Nobody wants to come here. We are an expensive, crime ridden country beholden to racist separatist Govt policies with almost third world health and education systems. Welcome to Aotearoa. Or rather, see ya later.

by agnostium | 12th May 23, 5:43pm 1683870191

No-one wants to come here because housing is too expensive which alongside the other cost of living factors means we're not that attractive compared to other advanced economies.

We are not crime-riddled or beholden to a racist separatist Govt policies.

Our education system is world class (tertiary needs to be put in context of our low population). Our health system is not terrible by international standards.

I wonder if the entitled know it all whinge-bags trying to stoke a culture war puts off some people.

by Shaft | 12th May 23, 6:20pm 1683872453

Crime stats are way up but labor have "fudged the goal posts numbers" to hide the youth offending.

https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/prison-sentence-remand-a…

Education 14th. Used be be world class now crap

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/best-countries-for-education

Health 26th - behind Sri Lanka. " rubbish "

https://www.numbeo.com/health-care/rankings_by_country.jsp

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1290168/health-index-of-countries-w…

maybe its the woke green eco, cycling, transgendèr, idealistic, victim blaming, leftie neo liberalist minorities that drive all majority away!

by OldSkoolEconomics | 13th May 23, 9:14am 1683926085

Highest truancy rates in oecd i think so presume this applies only yo kids who actually turn up.

Also and as one with a kid at school i can 100% guarentee we are far from having anything like a world class education system.

Kids with parents that help them will do ok (but not be pushed to excel). Those whose parents dont who cant help will do dismally.

As for fitness.. i would be 99% certain we face a massive unfit and unhealthy/overweight generation as the drop out rate from sports seems huge.

by Matt_B | 12th May 23, 7:28pm 1683876490

13k negative in the last 11 days of this month going on customs data

by Matt_B | 12th May 23, 7:37pm 1683877071

13k negative in the last 11 days of this month going on customs data

by K.W. | 13th May 23, 7:21pm 1683962501

An brutally honest look at what is wrong with NZ. But you'll never see it admitted in NZ media.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nz/unaffordable-unwelcoming-nzs-land-o…

by buyandhodl | 12th May 23, 3:19pm 1683861581

"I called this" lol seriously? You called work visa arrivals shrinking slightly in April? Smh

by K.W. | 12th May 23, 6:01pm 1683871268

I called it in that we are NOT having a migration "boom". New visa issues are down 30%. Most of those who arrived in March would be RSE workers coming in for the grape, apple and kiwifruit harvests. They will all go home at the end of this month.

by KiwiinSpain | 13th May 23, 1:07am 1683896842

As my username suggests, Spain in my "now" home. More than once this past month, once at a major Expo and with several local staff who might be amicable to travel, I've heard the following (same message, different exact language):

"Yep, Covid was tough but at least nothing on NZ / Australia"

Explain we are from NZ, common response: The unnamed: Cocky, dictatorship, oh "she let you out".....heard them all....

Says volumes about global interconnectivity

by Cur8or | 12th May 23, 10:52am 1683845539

That photo was timed perfectly.

by Shaft | 12th May 23, 11:45am 1683848727

Another " economic" card falls!

Last one in turn off the lights... theres nothing to see here.

by The_Golem | 13th May 23, 9:46am 1683927965

Wasn't there a sign in Auckland airport to that effect in the late 1980's - last one out, please turn off the lights?

Then, we used to have a sense of humor.

by Shaft | 12th May 23, 12:25pm 1683851153

Yip. Its aussie border control

by Kohukohunui | 12th May 23, 1:07pm 1683853655

Seems like a problem, we need to be bringing in more bus drivers, in order to get them bidding on these one million dollar town houses.

by OldSkoolEconomics | 13th May 23, 9:21am 1683926472

Bus drivers AND fruit pickers.. with their fanilies of course. If we pack 3 or 4 families to a house we can maintain high rents.. and if we dont pay them enough to afford to run a car after food then it will be A1 for the environment too.

Bummer about the high costs of benefits and accom supplements for their fams for thr mid class but the elite get that in the end anyway via the rent so thats good. And most elite have pvt healthcare so the excess loadon the dhbs wont cause much issue (costs will drop anyway as we dont have many staff).

Alls good. Elite can live in Aus (with all the young educated kiwis) and take the earnings from nz... and the mid class will eventually go over to live with their skilled kids anyway.

So nz will be a 2nd world nation of low skilled immigrants working the farms while the kiwis live in aus.

And the problem is?

by Sam Hill | 12th May 23, 1:23pm 1683854627

The last “normal” years we had - 2018 and 2019 - show a similar trend at this time of the year.

by huttman | 12th May 23, 3:29pm 1683862186

if you read the chart, it seems April is always a lower month.

by Neil21 | 12th May 23, 4:48pm 1683866894

Maybe the real problem is the plummeting birth rate in developed nations?

The next famine is not food in africa, but babies in the west

by Weld | 13th May 23, 9:32am 1683927133

There's always a drop in April. Just look at the blue bar chart.

by The_Golem | 13th May 23, 9:44am 1683927866

Maybe people are figuring out that we're becoming an even more high cost place to live, with little to recommend it if you don't have a lot of money overseas to underpin, and want to pursue, a cocoon lifestyle.

by April Spruiker | 15th May 23, 9:19am 1684099173

I wish we could have a mature conversation about immigration in this country without labelling whoever raises concerns a xenophobic philistine. Current orthodoxy is to see every migrant as an economic unit - but, actually they bring with them a whole raft of experiences and worldviews. What efforts are being made to build some kind of national identity and ensure people mesh well into our social fabric? I'm also concerned with what this might mean for elections moving forward, or even support for redistributive policies (particularly given many come from countries where it's a dog eat dog world).