The five industries Australian firms are trying to poach Kiwis from most
Monday, 24 April 2023
An analysis of job advertisements posted on New Zealand websites reveals the industries Australian employers are most actively trying to attract Kiwis from.
Lightcast, which monitors online job markets, found the mining industry had the most adverts from Australian firms offering New Zealanders relocations, followed by healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, then education.
Efforts by Australian employers to recruit Kiwi workers, and the prospect of a renewed brain drain, has become a focus since it was announced New Zealanders living in Australia will soon have access to Australian citizenship and its benefits after four years, in a major change to prohibitive immigration rules.
Lightcast spokesperson Daniel Leadbeater said the average advertised salary for the roles was $98,000.
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“This compares to the wider advertised mean salary for roles across New Zealand in the same timeframe of $65,000,” Leadbeater said.
Almost 27% of the adverts targeted those in the mining industry, 19% were in healthcare and social assistance, 12% were in manufacturing, 10% in the professional, scientific and technical services, and 8% in education and training.
The analysis was run using keyword searches that mentioned relocations to Australia, or Australian states or cities.
Leadbeater said there were 532 unique postings using such phrases over the last year, which was a low figure, but it did not include the number of Kiwis who may be looking for jobs on Australian websites.
“Something to watch into the future will be if this number increases at a faster rate after the recently announced visa changes.”
Leadbeater was not surprised at the industries most trying to poach Kiwi workers, with noted skill shortages in those sectors.
“Employers are often looking for ways to expand their available talent pools and Australian companies advertising directly to New Zealanders is a logical step towards deepening that pool.”
Recruitment drives from Australia appear to be working in the healthcare sector.
Nearly 5000 New Zealand nurses have registered to work in Australia since August.
Job website Seek recently started monitoring the percentage of job applications for roles in Australia that originated from New Zealand.
Using three eastern cities as examples, Seek found Kiwis now made up about 3% of applicants for engineering roles in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and between 1.4% and 1.8% of healthcare roles.
Similar percentages were found in the hospitality and tourism sector, and the education sector.
A Seek spokesperson said it was unclear if these numbers had increased since announcements of the new immigration rules, because the sample size was too small.
Over the year to September 2022, 5400 people moved from Australia to New Zealand, with just over 8500 moving to Australia.