All People, Food and Fibre
Visa Status
Workers on visas form an important part of the workforce, filling shortages for skilled workers and seasonal demands.
Overall, Muka Tangata industries have significantly less workers on a resident visa (10%) compared to the national benchmark (21%), but there are some significant differences between industry groups. For example, a quarter of the workforce in the Vegetable industry group are on a resident visa, whereas most of the workforce in the Sheep, Beef and Deer farming and Wool Wholesaling and the Forestry industry groups are NZ citizens.
The Fruit and Grape and Wine industries are very reliant on Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers. The RSE scheme allows employers within the horticulture and viticulture industries to recruit a limited number of seasonal workers, predominantly from the Pacific. Due to ongoing labour shortages, the cap on the number of RSE workers has increased again for the 2023/24 year to 19,5001.
Any seasonal horticulture contractors don't show clearly in the data for industry groups, because they are not employed directly by horticulture businesses. This is also true for workers on RSE visas. This means that these workers are not clearly reflected in the estimates for the Grape and Wine industry group and are likely underestimated within the Fruit and Vegetable industries2. There are a large number of RSE workers counted in the ANZSIC06 class, 'Other Agriculture and Fishing Support Services', which captures some of these contract workers.
Seasonal work within the horticulture industry has also been popular with young travellers (generally aged 18-30) on working holiday visas3. There has also been a small but steady increase in the number of workers on work visas, where migrants can work for up to 5 years with an accredited employer4.
The proportion of NZ citizens across the industries covered by Muka Tangata workforce has remained relatively stable since 2015, fluctuating between 71-79%.