Higher Wages Needed to Address Labour Shortages

“New Zealand needs higher wages if we are to seriously address labour shortages,” said Council of trade Unions secretary Paul Goulter today.

Although Statistics New Zealand figures released today show a slight lift in private sector wages in the last quarter, the annual increase is only 2.5%.

This is lower than the last annual increase of 3.5% for the August 2001 year. “The current labour shortages require more investment in education and training, better matching of unemployed with vacancies, and higher wages to attract workers to vacancies,” said Paul Goulter.

“New Zealand wages are 26% lower than those in Australia” he said.

“They are too low to attract and retain labour. ”

© Scoop Media