reaching record highs<\/a>.<\/p>\nPatrick Ryan, from R&R Plumbing and Gas, said he had found it very hard to employ a plumber to work in either Cromwell or W\u0101naka.<\/p>\n
“It’s generally always been reasonably tricky to find full-time staff down here. It is a pretty transient place anyway. But, especially over the last year, you do not even really get people applying as such now.<\/p>\n
“We used to pick up… people who were just here for the winter season. But we have not even noticed the skiers anymore.”<\/p>\n
To entice staff, R&R Plumbing had added a $1000 sign-on bonus for new recruits.<\/p>\n
Food delivery company Delivereasy was trying a similar tactic, offering $500 to drivers signing up in W\u0101naka.<\/p>\n
Co-founder Tim Robinson said recruiting in Queenstown and W\u0101naka was unlike anywhere else in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
“It is night and day. Queenstown, W\u0101naka is the place we find a lot of competition – a lot of high wages for entry-level jobs. And if you’re looking for work down there, it’s sort of a buffet.”<\/p>\n
The relatively high cost of living appeared to be the biggest barrier for potential recruits, Robinson said.<\/p>\n
“I think it is the housing. The housing particularly is really expensive… and it is a large transient population too. And then a lot of people will not have vehicles. So it is a bit of a perfect storm.”<\/p>\n
![\"SUNDAYS](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4JZ7B16_SUNDAYS_owner_Annabel_Herbison_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nSUNDAYS owner Annabel Herbison.
\nPhoto: Katie Todd \/ RNZ\n<\/p>\n
In Queenstown, SUNDAYS eatery was gearing up for what owner Annabel Herbison hoped would be its busiest summer yet.<\/p>\n
She was advertising for several different roles, and had noticed a big difference in application numbers between them.<\/p>\n
One management position had attracted about 180 applications – largely from out of town – while the front-of-house jobs had drawn a lot fewer.<\/p>\n
“I think it is just quite a competitive market. Everyone’s recruiting, everyone’s preparing for a big summer season, so there are a lot of jobs on offer.”<\/p>\n
The typically quiet shoulder season between winter and summer had proved reasonably busy this year, she said.<\/p>\n
“It is a good problem to have – businesses doing well down here. But when you have to balance that with staffing needs and operational needs, it can become challenging.”<\/p>\n
TradeMe Jobs and SEEK NZ reported the tide was beginning to turn for the job market across the rest of New Zealand this month.<\/p>\n
TradeMe said there had been a 13 percent rise in job listings last quarter – many of them in Southland, Otago and Canterbury.<\/p>\n
SEEK said the national trend was still one of “elevated candidate activity”, with “many willing applicants for the opportunities available”.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Housing costs are being partially blamed for a lack of staff in Queenstown. Photo: 123rf.com Despite demand for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":320048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5157,64,3240,420,50,5158,5156,5154,5155,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-320047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-current-affairs","11":"tag-jobs","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-podcasts","14":"tag-public-radio","15":"tag-radio-new-zealand","16":"tag-rnz","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115409753491407764","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}