Only a quarter of Pacific seasonal workers have been returning to New Zealand between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2022, new research has revealed.
There have been concerns about whether employment opportunities were being fairly shared between new recruits and returning workers to the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.
The study looked at whether RSE jobs were being given to returning workers who had developed the skills and experience sought by employers.
Researchers also examined the frequency of return of more than 30,000 workers who accounted for 102,000 Pacific RSE arrivals into Aotearoa since 2007.
At present, the cap is 19,000 but Luxon said that would be doubled to 38,000 to help ease the labour shortage in rural New Zealand.
The study, How often do Pacific seasonal workers return to New Zealand?, was published on Wednesday and found that of the 36,675 RSE workers who were recruited since 2007, 16,095 appeared only once in the database of 101,850 RSE visa arrivals.
The remaining 20,580 of RSE workers had returned to New Zealand for seasonal work at least once between 2007 and 2022.
Solomon Islands and Kiribati both registered the highest return rates of 61%, followed by Tonga (58.5%) and Vanuatu (58.2%).
were recruited for two or more seasons while Nauru showed the lowest return rate at 33%.
Credit: stuff.co.nz
