The number of people in New Zealand on work visas was likely at its second highest level ever at the end of January, for the time of year.
According to the latest Ministry of Business, Immigration and Employment figures, 196,137 people were in the country on work visas at the end of January this year.
MBIE records the figures at the end of each month, but work visa flows are seasonal so any figures should be compared with the same period of previous years to get a reasonable idea of trends.
The MBIE figures in their current format go back to 2009. Since then the only time they have been higher at the end January was in 2020, just before Covid-related travel restrictions were put in place.
After that the numbers slumped considerably, hitting a recent low of 122,511 in January 2023, before rebounding strongly in 2024 and 2025.
The number of overseas workers in NZ is now running ahead of where it was pre-Covid in January 2019, when there were 193,377 people on work visas, 2760 less than at the end of January this year.
Overseas student number have not rebounded quite as as strongly as work visa numbers.
According to MBIE, 66,147,people were in NZ on student visas at the end of January this year.
That's up 23% compared to the same time last year, but still down 3% compared to January 2019.
6 Comments
Dont forget the 211,000 people that were transferred from work visas to permanent residency. If that had never happened, we would not have needed to import another 200,000 people to replace them.
On the plus side, those 211,000 people seem to be very busy having babies, with a 23% increase in the number of Asian babies born in NZ last year. Thats after they all became First Home Buyers of course.
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