The number of people reaching New Zealand on work visas has almost restored the pre-pandemic levels, as data by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment reveals that 17,319 people arrived in the country on work visas last month.
The same source shows that the difference in the number of people coming into the country on work visas in May 2023 is 5.1 percent from the 18,249 work visa arrivals in May 2019, VisaGuide.World reports.
Work visa beneficiaries reached a record of 244,896 in 2019, later dropping to 69,528 in 2020 and just 5,778 in 2021 when Coronavirus restrictions were still in place. There were 71.6 percent fewer seasonal workers in 2020, while in 2021, those numbers dropped even further, scoring a 91.6 percent decline.
With New Zealand opening to the world, which happened relatively early – in August 2022, about three months earlier than expected, the number of workers coming to the country for work purposes increased significantly, totalling 10,000 a month since September last year.
The improvement has been noticed, especially since February 2023, as the number of record work visa arrivals has almost reached 2019 levels.
However, this year’s arrival numbers compared to those of pre-pandemic years didn’t have a steep peak of arrivals in January this year, which was a common phenomenon of pre-pandemic years.
Data by the Ministry show that between January and May of 2023, 88,275 people have reached the country with a New Zealand work visa – surpassing the 78,693 that arrived in all of 2022 by 12.1 per cent. These numbers are equivalent to 17,656 a month people coming on a work visa to the country on average every month so far this year.
However, this year’s rates are down by 15.5 percent compared to the first five months of 2019, and the figures suggest the gap is dimming, indicating that by the end of 2023, the numbers may well end up being close to the 2019 record.
Data for April shows that 20,442 people came to New Zealand with a work visa, breaking a new record from 2019 levels when 19,170 work visa holders came to the country.
MBIE’s figures revealed that the number of arrivals on work visas was severely impacted by the COVID-related restrictions, which caused the number of people coming to work in New Zealand to drop from 12,399 recorded in March 2020 to just 237 recorded in April 2020, representing a 98 per cent decrease.
The post New Zealand Hopes to Restore Pre-Pandemic Levels of Foreign Workers As It Receives Almost 18,000 People Monthly appeared first on VisaGuide.World.
