There has been a major change in the age of people coming to New Zealand on work visas, with significantly fewer overseas workers in their their twenties compared to pre-Covid levels.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment show that there were 193,716 people in this country on work visas at the end June this year.
That's slightly ahead of the pre-Covid era, when there were 190,302 people on work visas at the end of June 2019.
That shows that foreign worker numbers have now fully recovered from their post Covid lows, when they dropped down to 109,000 as Covid-related travel restrictions were put in place.
However one group of foreign workers has gone against that trend, with far fewer people aged in their 20s coming here on work visas, with more older workers taking their place.
At the end of June 2019, there were 88,848 people aged 20-29 in this country on work visas, which was easily the biggest age group of foreign workers, making up 47% or all work visa holders at that time.
But by the end of June 2025, the number of twenty somethings on work visas had dropped to 63,402, making up just 33% of work visa holders.
Conversely, the number of work visa holders aged in their 30s had increased from 66,957 at the end of June 2019 to 79,140 at the end of June this year, with their share of the work visa population increasing from 35% to 41% over the same period.
Work visas for the age groups 40-49 years and 50-59 years showed similar trends, with their numbers also up sharply compared to pre-Covid levels.
So there has been a clear shift in the age of overseas workers coming to this country, with more workers aged 30-plus and fewer in their twenties.
Jens Mueller, the chairman of the Licensed Immigration Advisor Association, points to changes made to work visa requirements as the likely cause of the shift in the age profile of work visa holders.
"The new accredited employer work visa requirements include two significant hurdles that didn't exist before," he said.
"One is that an employer must be accredited in order to employ a migrant, and the second is that in order to meet Immigration New Zealand requirements for a work visa, applicants had to have relevant work experience or a relevant qualification before they could apply.
"Neither of those two requirements existed previously," Mueller said.
That suggests people without significant work experience already under their belt would be less likely to qualify for a work visa and would also be less likely to appeal to a local employer.
"That would explain the reduction of younger people [from overseas] in the workplace," Mueller said.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.