Francis Pauwels (left) talks to an attendee at the expo. SUPPLIED
Rotorua's abundant lifestyle and job opportunities have been on display to an international jobs expo audience in Australia, with many people excited about what they saw.
Grow Rotorua attended the New Zealand Jobs Expo in Perth and Sydney last week in a joint marketing effort on behalf of Rotorua's transport and engineering sectors, to help fill the local skills gaps.
The job fairs were run by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), aimed at enticing skilled Kiwi ex-pats and other nationalities to New Zealand for work.
Forty New Zealand companies took part in the fair, including engineering, trades, construction, IT, healthcare and hospitality.
Grow Rotorua chief executive Francis Pauwels said it was a great opportunity for Rotorua to showcase the job opportunities available and that the response from jobseekers was overwhelmingly positive.
"The response we had from people was fantastic, with a lot of high-quality, skilled candidates showing great interest in Rotorua. New Zealand and the Bay of Plenty were number one on many people's target list due to the lifestyle, affordable housing and ease of travel on offer.
"Many companies in Rotorua, especially in the transport engineering sector, approach us saying they find it hard to attract skilled workers to Rotorua. The expos gave us an opportunity to demonstrate the career opportunities available in Rotorua in this space to a highly skilled and experienced audience, as well as the fantastic lifestyle on offer, that's not comparable to anywhere else in the world."
More than 3000 jobseekers attended both fairs, with around 30 per cent made up of Kiwi ex-pats looking to move home, 20 per cent of Australians wanting to move to New Zealand due to the strong economy, and 50 per cent from the likes of Europe, South America, South-East Asia and India. Seventy-five to 80 per cent of candidates had degree qualifications or higher.
The numbers reflect a changing attitude towards New Zealand, as the number of Kiwis leaving for Australia has halved from two years ago, as well as an increase in Kiwi ex-pats returning home from Australia, Europe and America during that time. The migration of Australians across the ditch has also been picking up, due to the healthy growth of the New Zealand economy, driven particularly by the housing and infrastructure projects in Auckland and Christchurch.
Mr Pauwels said because the New Zealand skills market was so competitive and with workers in short supply, it was unlikely companies would be able to fill skills gaps from within New Zealand.
"It's important we market ourselves and connect with jobseekers from outside New Zealand - it's about reaching the right people. The companies involved in the job fairs were a small example of the large number of Kiwi companies that cannot fill the skills gaps they currently have."
He said many attendees at the Perth expo had backgrounds in mining and related mining industries, while Sydney featured people specialising in engineering, IT and construction.
Although the main focus of Grow Rotorua's involvement was on behalf of the transport engineering sector, Mr Pauwels said they were open to any and all opportunities, advocating on behalf of all Rotorua job vacancies advertised on TradeMe and Seek.
"As a result, we have a number of high-quality candidates to refer to local Rotorua companies, including engineering and other sectors.
"This is an exciting opportunity for Rotorua, as it enables our local industry to continue developing and injecting new skills into the economy. Rotorua has some great, world-class stories and we just need to get out there and share them."