Alarm bells ring in latest confidence survey

Thursday, 20^th February, 2014

Securing workers with the right skills and experience is becoming increasingly difficult for business in Auckland.

Survey results across the past 12 months show a growing concern amongst business about the challenges of finding skilled staff. February 2013 saw 25% of respondents having difficulty employing specialist staff, increasing to 32% in our most recent survey.

“We need strategies to offset this issue fast, business needs to place a greater focus on training existing staff for the specific needs of their business and work hard on making sure their business is where top staff will want to stay” says Chamber Chief Executive Michael Barnett.

“It also sends out a clear message to the Department of Immigration. We need to look at getting some flexibility into our Immigration policy to help bring into New Zealand skilled workers to fill these gaps. If Auckland and New Zealand are to achieve deserved economic growth there needs to be policy that actually helps deliver these much needed skills to our work force now”.

For more results of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce February 2014 Business Confidence Survey, please click here.

For more information contact Michael Barnett, mobile: 0275 631 150.
Michael Barnett, Chief Executive, Auckland Chamber of Commerce.