New Zealand will make temporary changes to the immigration rules, a minister said on Sunday, which aims to attract 12,000 workers during the next year with a work holiday scheme designed to fill the labor gap when the business scrambles to find staff.
Doret for workers is part of a global trend that has helped encourage wages in New Zealand, which is a challenge for the battle of inflation by the central bank, which raised the interest rate last week to the highest since September 2015.
“These steps are about providing direct assistance to businesses that are most devastated by the lack of global workers,” Immigration Minister Michael Wood said in a statement, adding that the holiday scheme targets the multiplication of intake.
Other steps include relaxation of wage rules for skilled migrants in sectors such as parental care, construction and infrastructure, meat processing, seafood, and adventure tourism.
Visas of several land vacation makers will also be extended for six months to maintain workers now in this country, Wood added.
“The challenges of labor are seen at all levels of skills and sectors,” he said. “New Zealand is not alone in this matter.”
These steps came when the unemployment rate reached 3.3% in the second quarter, when wages also rose 3.4% in that year, rising at the fastest in 14 years.
Last week, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand raised an official cash rate of 50 basis points to 3.0%, in the seven -rise in a row to control inflation.
