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Businesses are increasingly turning to the four-day week as the recession bites into manufacturing orders from home and abroad.
Leaders and workers from the sawmilling and textile industries say companies have reduced workers' hours and pay to prevent redundancies as business slows.
The two industries employ 30,000 people.
Sawmillers have been hit the hardest because of the plunging construction market. The number of building permits issued for new homes fell 28 per cent last year.
Employers and unions seem agreed that changes to working hours maybe a workable solution.
The Employers and Manufacturers Association said the number of businesses asking for information about four-day weeks was increasing.
"Companies which need to make some changes to stay in business have a choice between downsizing and making a few people redundant or simply asking everybody to take a day off or making a few changes across the board so it affects people only a little bit," said northern region employment services manager David Lowe.
Andrew Little, secretary of the biggest private sector union, the EPMU, said talk about a four-day working week had "now turned into the nine-day fortnight".
"I think there is a willingness to explore that and look at the potential costs for training," he said.
For some businesses, four-day weeks have been the forerunner to closure. The country's biggest spa-pool maker, Leisureite, went to a four-day and then a three-day week, then went into liquidation last month.
Car dealer Nissan Newmarket also went down to a four-day week before Nissan NZ moved its Auckland franchise to Schofield and Co, forcing the closure of the 50-year-old car yard from April 1.
Timber Industry Federation president Howard Tonge said domestic sales of sawn timber were down to less than half those at this time last year. The industry employs about 7000 people.
"Probably half of the industry is looking at working reduced hours," he said. "All overtime has gone; four-day weeks are common."
Textiles New Zealand director Paula Smith said use of four-day weeks was spreading in the clothing and textile industries.
"Some companies, if they know they haven't got any work on, have an agreement with their workers to work four days a week or have a week or two weeks off," she said.
One of the newer stars of the manufacturing sector, Hunza Outdoor Lighting, gave its 32 staff a choice this week of redundancies or adopting a four-day week. All but one of the workers voted for the four-day week.
"There's not much we can do, the company has to survive in these hard times," said quality control manager Sang Lee, 50, who has his wife and two children aged 11 years and 18 months to support.
"It's hard. Of course it affects me, it's a 20 per cent cut," he said. "I'm losing my savings. I can't live on my salary at the moment."
The small privately owned company is a world leader in its field, exporting more than 95 per cent of its output to the US, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
"It's a global business," said founder Andrew Cunningham. "What appears to be happening is it goes slow everywhere on the same day at the same time."
Team leader Dave Matthews said all but one of the workers voted for the four-day week because nobody wanted to go.
"The general feeling was it's far better to lose one day a week than force four or five of the people we have been working with out the door."
