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Story: Southland region

Worker shortage

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Worker shortage

Southland’s economic buoyancy in the mid-2000s triggered an acute shortage of labour in many fields, including welding. Surveys showed unemployment at just 1.6%, and there weren’t enough Southlanders to fill vacancies. A Venture Southland survey showed that the manufacturing engineering sector would require about 88 new workers by mid-2009.

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Southland Times

Reference: 123326

by John Hawkins

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How to cite this page

David Grant, Southland region – Southland people, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/20150/worker-shortage (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by David Grant, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 May 2015.