New Zealand Faces Crisis in Skills Shortage

A severe shortage of skilled labour in the building and construction sector will slow recovery and force up prices and the cost of rebuilding Canterbury in the wake of the quake, says Labour Leader Phil Goff.

“The Canterbury earthquakes have created a huge spike in demand for building trades at a time when the industry has run down its pool of available tradespeople,” said Phil Goff in a speech to the NZ Manufacturers and Exporters Association in Christchurch.

“The industry estimates that across the country and in Canterbury, workload in the building and construction area will double, along with the need for skilled workers.

“Christchurch alone will need thousands of skilled workers available as quickly as possible. Up to 10,000 homes have to be totally rebuilt and 100,000 repaired, along with other non-residential buildings and infrastructure.

“In the midst of this, Canterbury will be competing with demand created by 40,000 leaky homes and the desperate need for thousands of new homes to address the serious housing shortage in Auckland.

“It is a misjudgement of huge proportions that the Government has no skills strategy in place to anticipate this demand.

“We are now nearly eight months out from the September earthquake and eight weeks since the February quake. Yet the industry and the new Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority tell me there is still nothing in place to address the need.

“Even worse, new apprentice intake numbers are down 30%, skill training numbers just over half what they were 3 years ago and last year Steven Joyce cut $50 million from the skill training budget.

“It is past time for the Government to act. An analysis of skill training needs, programmes to match those needs and engagement of people available to take up training should long since have been completed.

“Pre-trade training courses, skill training modules and accelerated apprenticeships should already be in place, but they aren’t.

“The Government also needs to re-examine procedures for approving and allocating earthquake repair work to end the hiatus in approving repairs which is slowing the recovery process down.

“Trade training courses should be available to provide options for the thousands of displaced workers in Christchurch, when the Government’s wage support package comes to an end in a few weeks’ time,” said Phil Goff.