Summer jobs: Cookie Time seller wins big as employees start seeking summer staff

Christmas Cookie Time seller Grace Egan is hoping to earn $10,000 after two months of work which will set her up for another year at university. Photo / George Novak

As the sun sets on the university year students are coming out of the shadows of their textbooks and looking to make some extra money. And as visitor numbers double the extra help is welcomed support. Leah Tebbutt reports.

Visitor numbers are set to double over the summer period and to cope - more summer jobs are being advertised.

But there is an advantage for both sides of the employer relationship university student Grace Egan says.

After a year of hard slog at business school, Egan sacrifices two months of her summer break selling Cookie Time Christmas Cookies.

The pharmacy student said it is hard work but worth it at the end of the day. Photo / George Novak

Over seven weeks she hoped to make about $10,000 but it was not without a lot of hard work and commitment she said.

"It is 1000 per cent hard work. I start at 9am and sometimes don't finish selling until 8pm. Then once I get home there is an hour worth of admin to go through.

"It is worth it for the money if you definitely put the motivation in but it is long hours."

Egan will work up until Christmas to ensure she can have January and February off meaning she can do placement for her degree - something she said wouldn't be achievable if she was working somewhere like a cafe.

Student Job Search chief executive Michael Leach said 526 vacancies had been listed in Tauranga since July 1 and 283 of those were in the six weeks to mid-November.

There were more than 1600 students actively looking for work in the Bay of Plenty region on the Student Job Search website after the university year finished, Leach said.

About 60 per cent of those were for casual and one-off roles.

"There is a 25 per cent increase of job listings from mid-September to mid-March on Student Job Search while student activity on the website peaks from October to mid-December and mid-January to end-February."

Leach said the increase in activity over the summer months was often related to seasonal demands, from orchard and vineyard work to extra staff for tourism and hospitality to graduate level roles.

Kristin Dunne, chief executive of Tourism Bay of Plenty did not deny the visitor numbers soar in the summer months. Photo / File

While Tourism Bay of Plenty was unable to confirm visitor numbers its most accurate measure was spending.

"During the summer months, the region experiences significantly increased visitor spend which is close to double that of the winter months," Tourism Bay of Plenty chief executive Kristin Dunne said.

"Particularly the Christmas and New Year period is extremely busy in Tauranga and across the region with heightened visiting friends and relatives to the region."

She said the tourism industry alone employed 6088 people in Tauranga, making up 8.5 per cent of the city's jobs in the year ending March 2018.

Visitor-spend data from MBIE to year-end September 2019 also showed that $1.1 billion was injected into the coastal Bay of Plenty's economy, annual growth of 7.1 per cent.

Hiring people in the summer helps council cope with the increase in service demand. Photo / File

Tauranga City Council offered student and summer jobs in different areas of the council including libraries, infrastructure and the Mount Beachside Holiday Park, human resources manager Alison Crowe said.

"Hiring people in short-term summer roles enables us to respond to higher demand for our services at peak times.

"Student roles provide students with work experience opportunities. We are always looking to attract new talent, and students offer a fresh way of thinking - students are the next generation of leaders."

The council was also working with the University of Waikato to establish a programme to help students gain real workplace experience and receive formal credits towards their qualification.

This was not a summer internship in the traditional sense but part of the University of Waikato's academic programme, Crowe said.