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.
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22 Comments
..and we have growing unemployment? I feel the emergence of a Trump like kick back on the horizon.
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.
"The great replacement is a far-right conspiracy theory"
Ask your average German about that....
Te Pati Maori also has had opinions...
Brocky,
I disagree with your insinuation that the great replacement theory can neatly explain high immigration numbers worldwide.
If there’s a demographic replacement going on in societies, it’ll be a consequence of questionable governmental policies - such as ceding to wealthy business owners to allow cheap labour into the country - rather than a replacement conspiracy being the actual causation.
More so the way our pension system being set up as a money in money out every week arrangement. Mass retirement means they need to replace these workers to ensure tax money coming in to pay the pensions each week or the system implodes. Even so, the income of the replacement workers probably will not match those retiring on a large scale, and at the current rate, the system will still implode within 10 years unless we see a die off of the population bulge, or, less likely, we see actual reform such as means testing, tax on income earned while receiving a pension etc, however this would require the youth to become educated around the long term impacts of not demanding this, and engaging with central govt + voting accordingly which history is showing is not a strong point for the youth.
Got weblink on that Champ?
Or is that some materials in your letter box from 'NZ for NZers support group"?
I Wonder what the jobs are, so many stories of hundreds of people applying for a single job here?
Many of those on work visas are not really here to “work”. Many will soon to be residents…..
I bet that 80-90% are here for a low level work and you're (Small Kev) not familiar with the immigration rules
To be eligible for residence you need:
1. a Uni degree
2. a clear path to residence, otherwise you'll have to leave the country after your visa expires
3. if it's an IT job, to get enough points for residency, you need at least 6-8y of experience
Additionally, the IT market is currently flat, and I do not anticipate any changes before June or July
“I bet that 80-90% are here for a low level work and you're (Small Kev) not familiar with the immigration rules ”
I see it day in and day out at work, I struggle to understand how they got residency approval so quickly. Without going into details I work in the financial industry so I see it everyday.
Many have been here for a while, they bring their partners here (with said qualifications) and 12 month later…
Not sure where you live, but look around you and feel free to ask how they got their residency.
Ah, not if you marry or partner up with someone who has NZ citizenship or residency. Even better news, once one of you gets citizenship, the other can also leave for Australia on a 461 Visa (non-citizen partner of a NZ citizen). Talk about a back door to Australia.
Trust me even if they all leave for Australia, there will be more of them coming, never ending.
Still more rounds of jobs looking to be cut in IT within Health NZ currently, it's a bit of a sh*t show on the admin side of things as they also won't rehire anyone leaving.
Another 262,000 reasons for young Kiwi families to leave New Zealand.
It is totally obvious that all New Zealand political parties are never going to allow our wages to ever rise above a subsistence level as they all have a policy of flooding the country with low wage, low skill immigrants.
Both major parties have run a narrative of creating affordable housing conditions, then executed policies with the opposite effect. In the last round the National government were full of this talk. But in reality what have they done.
Nothing to free up affordable land as prommised
Nothing to increase competition and affordability in the building material supply market as prommissed
Nothing to make houses more affordable as prommised
Continued the decades long practice of flooding the country with immigrants to suppress wages and push up houseprices
Relaxed pressure on the property investment sector to help push up house prices and look after their wealthy mates.
The outlook for a large proportion of Kiwi families that remain here is that they will never own their own homes and become perpetual renters, struggling to live from one inadequate pay cheque to the next.
Remaining in New Zealand is simply not a rational option.
Don't listen to the political spin with any hope at all. Decades of experience prove that nothing will ever come of it.
Amen. Finally someone that is honest about both parties doing the same thing.
Wage increases without productivity increases is inflationary. NZ has one of the highest minimum wages in the world.
Why does New Zealand have one of the highest minimum wages in the world? Is it because we're so generous to our lower quartile earners, that they're flush with cash?
.
Why oh why oh why oh why?
If Luxon can't see why this is a problem, move over and let Trump run NZ...
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