Originator/Sponsor: Food and Fibre CoVE
Portfolio Managers: Fiona Windle
Status: Completed March 2024
Lead Agency/Service Provider: Scarlatti
Introduction/Background:
The Attraction and Retention Research Programme identified a range of opportunities to address retention challenges in the food and fibre sector. One of these opportunities included coordinating nationwide seasonal labour. This advanced to include exploring what the vocational education and training opportunities are for the seasonal workforce.
Objectives:
The aim of this research was to understand:
– What is the size of the permanent workforce shortage?
– Which are our seasonal sectors, industries, sub-industries and regions?
– Who are our current and potential seasonal workers?
– Where are the biggest challenges with seasonality?
– How many additional people are available to attract into seasonal work?
Using Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), the project explored how feasible it would be to address non-seasonal workforce shortages with seasonal workers by:
- Combining seasonal work across sectors, but within regions, to create year-round employment – in effect making seasonal roles into non-seasonal ones.
- Creating education pathways that transition seasonal workers into non-seasonal roles.
The report with dashboard can be viewed here.
The above information was current as at 3 April 2025.