Lots of the work visas approved in the last five years were for occupations starting with C. There were quite a few carpenters, as one might expect, but when three of the top four categories are chef, cook, and café and restaurant manager it doesn’t have the ring of a strategy well implemented to enhance productivity and the earnings prospects of New Zealanders. I was also struck by the number of commercial cleaners, commercial housekeepers, and community workers. And I mentioned the 250 or so checkout operators yesterday.
A skills-based economic lever to lift productivity and living standards for New Zealanders? Really…….
croaking cassandra 
Computer programmer = 0
Chef = 14000.
Cui bono?
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Everyone that loves food
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Are a large number of approvals multiple entry temporary workers (help explain why there are >180k approvals per year in total for PLT migration of around 55k)? eg chefs on cruise boats need a work visa every time they visit. I’m surprised a large number of cricketers did not show up earlier this year.
What about holiday work visas? May explain baristas, bar staff and the like. It does seem a large proportion of service staff in Wellington have a non-NZ accent.
Remember when NZers used to go overseas and work in bars to afford a holiday? Now it is the reverse. Relative economic performance and currency strength meant we got served rather than did the serving. Pity our relative wealth is declining now. We may end up making beds and coffees for ourselves (and others) again.
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These (occupation ) data don’t seem to include working holiday visas (for which you don’t need to declare an occupation). There will be some renewals I think, and people like cricket and rugby players coming in for tournaments/matches must be on different visa types again. The spreadsheet has around 60000 work visa approvals (over 5 years) where occupation isn’t identified, and some of them are specific events (others incl working holidays, and partners of students or workers)
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Importing voters = good strategy (for the government signing them in).
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It can’t be a category they use (in ANZSIC). There lots of different ICT jobs under I, altho still only 7000 over all sorts of types of roles.
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I am pleased that the stats maintain the important distinction between ‘Chef’ and ‘Cook’.
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I am not sure how these figures have been obtained. Many of the hospitality workers come to NZ as students then apply for work visas. Dairy farm workers are not mentioned on the list when thousands have come into the country. No mention of mechanics and metal workers when thousands have come into the country in these categories.
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Bruce
The data source is here
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/general/generalinformation/statistics/
As you’ll have seen, my D post captured lots of dairy workers, and on checking the M categories there are certainly lots of metal workers.
Regards
Michael
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