Work, Interrupted: Here's where skill shortages are right now
Thursday, 17 July 2025
Redundancy in your 30s and 40s. Ageism at 50. Dead ends at 22. Our new Work, Interrupted series reveals how different generations are dealing with the job market as unemployment bites.Today Miriam Bell takes a look at the state of the job market from the other end of the spectrum - where employers are struggling to hire.
New Zealand’s long, drawn-out recession means it’s a challenging time for people trying to find a job, and yet the spectre of skills shortages has not gone away.
Skill shortages have long plagued some sectors, such as healthcare, but the problem escalated to new heights during the Covid years when the borders closed and the economy boomed. Construction, tourism, and hospitality were just some of the sectors affected.
Now, the economic climate is tough, company liquidations are at high levels, and unemployment has hit 5.1%.
Reports of widespread redundancy rounds continue, and many jobseekers are finding it impossible to enter the labour market.
But earlier this year a Hays Recruitment report found that 85% of hiring managers in New Zealand and Australia experienced skills gaps that negatively affected team or organisational performance.
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And some sectors have continued to struggle to fill skilled roles. The shortage of doctors is well-known, for example.
The Post talked to some experts to find out how that was possible in the current environment, and what sectors were affected. It turned out it’s more complex than it seems.
The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment does not have an official measure of skill shortages.
MBIE insights manager Scott Ussher said measuring skill shortages was difficult, due to limited data and the complexities involved in defining and measuring them.
Skills were intangible and hard to observe directly, but to help monitor labour demand trends it used Jobs Online to measure changes in online job advertisements, he said.
“Sustained increases in advertising for certain roles can provide a useful proxy for identifying skill shortages, especially when combined with other labour market indicators.”
Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen said job ad numbers gave a clue to what sectors might have skill shortages.
MBIE’s latest job ad numbers showed several sectors where the decline in ads was not as big, which suggested higher demand for skills in those sectors, he said.
“The sector with the lowest drop in ads was the healthcare sector, and there’s a talent shortage for skilled jobs in that sector. Population growth and an ageing population means more people are needed in that area.”
The primary sector’s job ad numbers showed their first annual increase since mid 2024, while the training and education sectors’ were up on a year ago, and those results were different to other sectors, he said.
“Considering the current economy, the sectors where job ads have not dropped as much are the ones where skills shortages might be starting to emerge.”
Seek NZ country manager Rob Clark said that based on Seek data there were signs of ongoing skill shortages across several key sectors.
“In the health and medical sector, demand remains strong, particularly in the larger cities, for highly skilled and higher-paid roles such as anaesthetists, consultants, and psychologists.
“Experienced nurses are also in relatively short supply across many regions.”
In the legal sector, there was consistent demand for commercial and property lawyers and solicitors, with shortages evident in most parts of the country, he said.
“Engineering continues to face pressure, especially in the South Island, where engineers are in short supply. While in IT, cloud and data-related roles remain in demand, particularly in major metropolitan areas.”
Recent data from specialist recruitment firm Robert Walters showed job ads in May had declined by 8% since the same time in 2024. But Rhys Collins, who heads one of the company’s Auckland teams, said that at the same time there were skills shortages.
Across multiple levels there had always been skills shortages in New Zealand, and given where it was that was not surprising, he said.
“But over the last five years there’s been a trend whereby instead of new graduates heading overseas, it’s been people with four to five years’ experience.
“Those people have experience and skills that can’t be replaced easily, and that’s left a void in the mid-tier ranks of many professions across different sectors. Those roles are hard to fill.”
Employers could either throw younger employees in at the deep end and hope it worked, or they could recruit more senior people into roles with broader responsibilities, but that could be challenging in itself, he said.
“There is not a shortage of candidates, but there is a shortage of appropriate skills. There’s often a mismatch between the skills on offer, and what businesses want.”
Hays Recruitment managing director NZ David Trollope agreed there was often a skills mismatch, and pointed to his company’s report that found 85% of hiring managers ran into skills gaps.
It was a situation that led to pronounced skills shortages within certain sectors, he said.
One current example was in the technology and digital sector where there was ongoing high demand for roles such as software developers, cyber-security analysts, and network engineers.
“Businesses need people with skills in these areas to help with digital transformation, cyber-security threats, and their hybrid infrastructure needs.”
The demand for the skill-sets required was highest in Auckland, the commercial and financial centre, and Wellington, the seat of government, he said.
“Another sector where we are seeing high demand for particular skills is the accounting and financial sector, and especially for people with local experience.”
Trollope said the existing shortages were not likely to ease any time soon, and more generally demand for talent was gathering pace after a very challenging couple of years.
“That means there is a still a window of opportunity for employers looking for talent to secure great candidates before the economy recovers, and more shortages develop.”