Kiwi job seekers throng Australian job expo

New Zealand, 17th February: Australian job expo in Auckland drew an overwhelming response from Kiwi job seekers looking to work in Australia.

As per the official figures, the Oz Job Expo attracted nearly 6000 people and some firms even managed to get more applications than the number of jobs available with them.

According to Jason Clayton, organizer of the job expo in Auckland, the response was quite overwhelming as a high number of Kiwis showed interest in immigrating to Australia from New Zealand to get jobs there.

As per the reports, around eight New Zealanders were hired by Byrnecut, a Mining and engineering firm in Australia, while another 40 are expected to be hired by the company soon.

Such statistics reiterate that Australian jobs are getting increasingly popular as compared to the period of 2008, feels Swan Transit, who has been involved in hiring bus-drivers for Adelaide and Perth.

He maintained that the number of candidates likely to get short-listed is not going to exceed beyond 300.

The increasing number of New Zealanders applying for Australian jobs shows that they have lost faith in the management of the New Zealand economy, stated Labor leader Phil Goff.

Better pay key factor for higher applicants for Australian jobs—

Since the Kiwis way back home have earned quite lower wages last year, hence, they seem to be giving preference to relocating to Australia for better job options there, Mr. Goff said.

As per the data, average wage increase received by Kiwis last year was just around 1.7 percent which is less than nearly half of the current inflation rate of 4 percent, he added.

Relocation of Kiwis to Australia bad for New Zealand economy—

Losing a large number of New Zealand workforce to Australia could prove detrimental for the nation’s economy, feared Mr. Goff. A similar brain-drain was also experienced by New Zealand under the previous government.

And the nation is going to experience a severe shortage of skilled workforce as it recovers from the economic slowdown, he added. Such a scenario might spell doom for the nation, he warned.

He reiterated that Labor will be taking several steps for the betterment of the New Zealand economy including upgrading skill levels, focus on R&D (research and development) and better monetary policies.