Friday, Nov 10, 2017
Ashburton App
THE
Since Sept 27, 1879
Retail $1.70 Home delivered from $1.05
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
Ashburton at your fingertips
DOWNLOAD
NOW!
Going for a big throw It was an actionpacked sports day yesterday for Hampstead Kindergarten pupils – and B’eea proved her beanbag throwing skills
www.guardianonline.co.nz
FULL STORY
P3
PHOTO KATIE TODD 091117-KT-020
Big weekend for jumpers
P32
Worker shortage becomes critical BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
IN TODAY’S GUARDIAN
Ashburton is facing a major shortage of employees that business owners and employers say is hampering economic growth. And while there are no easy answers, Talley’s Ashburton branch manager Malcolm Wallace believes a hard-hitting marketing campaign targeting North Islanders could go some way towards filling the employment gap. He was one of a number of employers taking part in a job summit in Ashburton this week at which the facts of the labour shortage were spelled out. “The truth is, we’ve got good people in Ashburton, we just don’t have enough of them,” Wallace said. The summit was held in response to a television interview where mayor Donna Favel talked about the problems employers had in both attracting and re-
taining staff. While the employment situation was already tough, Wallace said any tightening of immigration numbers as promised by the new Labour government would only make the problem worse. His company has a workforce that is about 40 per cent migrants. “For the regions we should be making a case for easing up on visa renewal restrictions,” he said. Tighter rules around immigration could force Talley’s to look at “building people rather than recruiting people” and there were already discussions under way around working with school leavers. A longer term solution, Wallace believes, is to attract people from other parts of New Zealand to live and work in the district. For that to be successful, however, there needed to be a strong, focused campaign that promoted the things that
the district offered such as open spaces, cheaper housing, lack of traffic and that campaign needed to be well planned, to involve a range of employers and to be driven by the district council, he said. The workforce shortage was also hitting the professions, said Ashburton College principal Ross Preece. “One of our big challenges is attracting people to the region. If you’re a young person, is there night life that would make Ashburton attractive? Probably not. Yes Ashburton is a safe place to raise a family and it’s a good place to buy a home but there’s a disconnect with young people coming here – if you don’t find a soul mate then you’re likely to move on, Preece said.
CONTINUED
P2
Ph 03 307 7900 to subscribe!
www.guardianonline.co.nz