Leeann Watson: Business Canterbury CEO says overseas workers could be the solution to construction worker shortages in the region

There’s a belief overseas workers could be the answer to potential construction worker shortages in Canterbury. 

The Workforce Development Council for Construction and Infrastructure estimates more than 23 thousand additional workers will be needed over the next three years. 

Business Canterbury CEO Leeann Watson says it's not a unique problem for the region. 

She told Mike Hosking that changes to the vocational system need to be aligned with immigration policy as it plays a major role in meeting New Zealand's workforce challenges. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The trouble with a booming area back home is you
need people to make the boom work. Canterbury's got a
twenty billion dollar infrastructure pipeline lined up, but a new
report this morning suggested labor is an issue, as in
the people. They will need an additional twenty three thousand
workers to make all this happen, so there is some
concern they can't get them. Business Canterbury CEO LeAnn Watson's
with us LeeAnne, good morning morning. Make funny thing. Kind

(00:22):
of a good problem to have, isn't it sort.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Of Well, yeah, absolutely, I think it's great news for
businesses that Canterbary is looking at that construction thur And
over the next few years, and that strong pipeline will
hopefully mean better roads, better bridges and further growth in
housing stock to make sure that we maintain our relatively
affordable and of course the attractive for subduring business here
in Canabury. So a positive problem to have. That's certainly
one that we need to lean into and work out

(00:47):
how we address.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Do we have any understanding of it? Because unemployments up,
so labor should be available. Construction has been particularly hit,
so therefore there should be capacity to do. So what's
gone or going wrong? Why can't we join the stops?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, And according to our Business Canterbury's most recent quarterly survey,
which we just released last week, both the civil and
construction sector here in Canbury are definitely looking to gear
up the growth over the next year. Sixty four percent
said they were expecting to hire more staff in the
next twelve months, and that's compared to an average of
fifty five percent across all industry. So I think there
is a you know, there's certainly good intentions there. What

(01:23):
we need to make sure is that we've got that
connection between the lineup of good vocational level skills representing
that highest area of the labor market demand from business,
and of course we've got the likely highest proportion of
outline migration flows. So there's a couple of things that
play there. So look, it is a challenging situation and
we need to make sure we've got really fit for

(01:45):
purpose globally competitive vocational training systems as well, which is
something that is not We're not where we need to
be right now.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
No, we're not. And when you talk of that, do
you talk of Canterbury or do we talk of the
whole country. In other words, that this popped up anywhere,
we'd have the same problem.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, I think we would certainly not unique to Canterbury.
We know that changes to a vocational system also need
to be aligned with things like an immigration policy, and
their immigration policy, particularly for certain sectors, will continue to
play an important role in meeting New Zealand's workforce challenges.
So you know, those two things need to go hand
in hand, along with things like better recognition of high

(02:22):
quality international vocational qualifications. That will certainly help in the
short term while that reform is underway, and we know
that it takes you know, several years to train up
you know, the right qualifications and skills in sectors such
as construction as well.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Do you have any sense so you need twenty three thousand,
how many of those twenty three thousand are going to
come off, say the stadium when that's finished in a
year or so and move on to something else versus
a whole flood of people into the region.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean we've got things like in christ
Hitch right now, we've got the Court Theater being coming
on stream this year, and then of course, as you've mentioned,
we've got the stadium, so those workers will come off
those big projects and will be available for other work.
So it'll be interesting just to see exactly how that
does play out. And of course we do know as

(03:09):
well that we've got reasonably high unemployment rates as you
mentioned at the moment compared to say eighteen months ago
where we were talking about significant labor market shortages, so
we need to make sure we've got all of the
people that are currently unemployed in work, as well as
looking at those other settings around vocational education and immigration teams.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Always good to have you on the program and day
good luck with it. Leam Watson, who's the business at
Canterbury CEO with

Speaker 2 (03:34):
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