More people leaving than arriving as young Kiwis flee NZ for jobs and OE

Friday, 11 July 2025

Acting PM David Seymour says Kiwi exodus to Australia is a Covid hangover.

Plastered along Lambton Quay is a new student-driven campaign about the economic unease driving young New Zealanders overseas: “No work. Sh*t pay. Why stay?”.

The sentiment is part of a greater migration picture, which on Thursday reached another milestone. Statistics NZ estimated that in April and May more people moved away from New Zealand than migrated here -- a net loss of 779 inhabitants during these two months.

A monthly net loss has only been seen once, in December, since 2013. Once seasonally adjusted, the figures show a net gain for these two months of more than 2600 people.

VUWSA campaign posters plastered on Lambton Quay about a poor job market driving young Kiwis overseas.

The figures also show a net 30,000 people moving to Australia from New Zealand last year, the largest loss across the Tasman in a calendar year since 2012.

“There’s no question we are undertaking a tough recovery from a very disruptive event, which was Covid-inflation, Covid-interest rates and a recession that came from those high interest rates,” said acting prime minister David Seymour.

Seymour said New Zealanders would have more reason to stay as the Government maintained “really careful spending … as interest rates come down, rents get lower, mortgages rates are coming down”.

But Victoria University’s student union, VUWSA, wants the Government to reinstate various government graduate programmes to help retain young New Zealanders entering the workforce.

VUWSA president Liban Ali said a survey of its members showed that job security was now front of mind for students, on top of the largest concern of recent years, the cost of living.

VUWSA president Liban Ali says the student union wants the Government to reinstate graduate jobs.

Graduate roles within the public service had been “slashed”, he said.

VUWSA wanted these cuts reversed, as well as more jobs and programmes accessible to students. Ali said many wanted to stay and contribute to New Zealand.

“They don’t want to have to decide to either move to Australia or the UK for better opportunities.”

VUWSA has put posters up in central Wellington and started collecting signatures for a petition to deliver to the Government about the graduate programmes, part of a series of campaign actions it intends to take on the issue.

Not all are leaving to seek jobs. Bronwyn Wilde, a 27-year-old law graduate who has been working in the courts, will soon leave for the United Kingdom and Europe for a two or three year stint travelling.

Wellingtonian Bronwyn Wilde, 27, is among the young Kiwis headed overseas as, in the past two months, the outflow from New Zealand exceeds the inflow. While many are headed to Australia for employment prospects, Wilde is headed to Europe for a pandemic-delayed OE.

“I'm very much part of that group that is leaving because we had intentions to earlier, you know, a few years ago, and that was sort of thwarted by Covid.”

Wilde said she was heavily involved in her local community, in particular the Vogelmorn Hall community centre, so was conflicted about leaving. But the tug of an overseas experience won out.

Many of her friends from working in law were headed overseas to complete masters degrees or work in London law firms, she said.

“There’s also an element of just people being like, ‘I’ve got to go now, or else I never will’.”

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said the outflow was not unusual for this time of year, and the seasonally adjusted figures -- accounting for fluctuations across the year -- showed more were moving to New Zealand than leaving.

See ya: New figures show 30,000 Kiwis migrated to Australia last year alone.

“But that’s slowing down quite considerably now. You’ve got a much lower level of net migration,” he said.

He said the numbers appeared to show fewer New Zealanders headed on the catch-up OE after the pandemic, as people moving with UK visas were down, and more looking to Australia for economic reasons.

“The Australian unemployment rate is lower than what it is here in New Zealand … I wouldn't, though, say that everything in Australia is like a thousand times better than New Zealand.

“We hear that a lot from Kiwis who go across the ditch, that sometimes there's different opportunities and sometimes it's easier for some things, but it's not this universal sort of green grass over there.”

While the inflow to New Zealand was plateauing, that it remained at such a level while unemployment was at 5.1% revealed a “skills mismatch” in the labour market, he said.

Olsen said it was too early to tell if or when there might be a turning point in the migration numbers, and Stats estimates would be revised.

But migration figures can turn around quickly, he said, depending on government policy and the economy.