Businesses are having little success filling skills shortages within their firms, despite advertising vacancies for months on end.
Figures showed 40 percent of respondents had advertised vacancies for more than six months. Photo: CORBIS
A survey of 335 businesses by the Employers & Manufacturers Association (EMA) found that 100 percent of respondents with job vacancies were struggling to find staff.
The survey found close to 40 percent respondents had been advertising vacancies for more than six months and more than fifth said they had been trying to fill open roles for more than a year.
When firms did get applications for empty positions, just over half of respondents said they were lacking in "work readiness" and about a fifth said they lacked literacy, numeracy and IT skills.
EMA head of advocacy and strategy Alan McDonald told RNZ the survey confirmed what everyone had been saying.
"There's just not enough people in the system at the moment to fill the gaps in the workplace."
McDonald said he was currently on the road meeting with the EMA's members and he was hearing a familiar refrain.
"Everywhere I am going it's the same story, the single biggest handbrake on growth and recovery from the pandemic is that [firms] can't find people and they can't find people with the right skills."
Shortages were being felt across all sectors but was particularly difficult in rural regions, he said.
McDonald said bringing in workers from overseas was not an answer to the country's skill shortage woes.
New Zealand had lost its lustre among overseas workers due to high cost of living and house prices, as well as perceptions the country was still "closed", he said.
While other countries were dealing with similar challenges around the cost of living, McDonald said our immigration system was complex and less appealing relative to that of Australia's.
The new Accredited Employer Work Visa policy has recently opened, allowing migrants offshore to apply to work for an accredited employer.
As part of the policy, employers need to have completed a Job Check before they can hire a worker from overseas and must pay at least the median wage of $27.76 per hour.
But the survey found that a third of respondents did not pay the median wage, meaning that vacancies could not be filled with overseas workers.
McDonald said the median wage barrier meant there were a lot of people who would earn below that mark that could not come and fill gaps in sectors like trucking and hospitality.