KEY POINTS:
Southland employers are set to launch a raiding party to lure Auckland's skilled workers to the region led by the Mayor of Invercargill, Tim Shadbolt.
Shadbolt will return to his old home town at the head of a platoon of businesses, recruiters, educational institutions and real estate agents
to put the case for Southland as part of the New Zealand Herald's Your Career Expo next month.
Shadbolt says that the raiding party is considering establishing a village rather than a stall at the expo. Members will do everything they can to entice skilled workers south.
The region needs an injection of 18,000 employees, Shadbolt says - and if oil is struck, that number will increase dramatically.
"We're desperate. We have a booming dairy industry with 100 farms waiting for conversion, we've got dairy factories opening in Invercargill and Gore, and the Fonterra factory is being doubled in size."
Scott O'Donnell, managing director of the Richardson Group, a major transport and construction services employer in Southland, is joining the delegation coming north to look for more workers.
His company has 30 vacancies in its machine operation sector, and he says wages compare well against Auckland levels, given the higher cost of living in Auckland.
Economic statistics from the National Bank show Southland remains the fastest growing economy in the country, with annual growth of 3.4 per cent in the year to March - compared with Auckland's 1.7 per cent, below the national average.
Retail spending growth is the second-highest in the South Island, ASB data shows, and unemployment is also the country's lowest, averaging 2.1 per cent during the past year.
Car registrations have risen during the past year - the only region to register such an increase.
"If Southland was a country it would be near the top of the OECD for economic growth," Shadbolt says. "Why wouldn't you want to live here?"
Southland's healthy economic growth is partially driven by the comparatively lesser amount of speculative housing investment, Shadbolt says.
"While every other region in New Zealand is suffering from a decrease in housing values, ours went up 8 per cent over the past year, which has helped stabilise our economy."
House price growth there is cooling rapidly after last year's burst above 20 per cent year-on-year, but is still well ahead of anywhere else in the country.
Sean Bellew, a real estate agent at Southernwide Real Estate, says property investor interest in the region remains strong despite the nation's market downturn, and that there is a lot of cash surplus available in the strong rural sector.
Bellew doesn't expect the Southland property market to further regress and forecasts Southland leading a market upturn in the next three to four months.
"People in Auckland have a negative view of Invercargill," says O'Donnell, "but the cost of housing is low - an executive house is $300,000."
"The biggest commute we have is seven minutes and we have huge sports facilities - indoor stadiums, indoor velodromes and the best motor-racing track in the country.
"It is also the entrance point to the Fiordland National Park, Queenstown and Wanaka."
Shadbolt says the expo gives Aucklanders a chance to look at other opportunities while the country's biggest city grapples with problems, such as inadequate infrastructure.
Having experienced life in both centres, he is confident of luring hundreds of stressed Aucklanders to a more relaxed and family-friendly life in the south.
Penny Simmonds, of the Southern Institute of Technology, says a cheaper lifestyle and ease of employment is part of a package the community offers. "People need to look at what their money buys in Southland, the disposable income it can give them."
The institute is still running its zero fees scheme and Simmonds says that is an important plank in attracting people to study, and hopefully retaining them in employment locally. Its representatives will be at the expo looking to attract staff and students.
"Nearly all our students are working at least part time while they're here and we are working closely with employers to try to assist with filling critical job shortages," says Simmonds.
Whether oil is struck in the region or not, Shadbolt says easily accessible areas of lignite coal will continue to power economic growth.
"If we can find a way to convert coal into diesel in a way that doesn't hurt the environment, we'll be able to supply all of New Zealand's electricity needs for the next 200 years."
