Plumbers: The $40-an-hour job that no one in New Zealand wants

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ

Robbie Winterson says he faces a battle every time he tries to hire new plumbers in his business.

He runs Go Fox Plumbing and Electrical in Putāruru in the South Waikato. When he puts a job ad on Seek or Trade Me, he says, he either gets no New Zealand applicants at all, or only people completely unsuitable for the job.

“We don’t get good-quality applicants at all. You just don’t get people applying.”

Winterson said plumbers would be paid more than electricians and his firm paid the same as they would get in Auckland, but it was still hard to hire.

Apprentices start on minimum wage, but progress fairly quickly towards $30 an hour. Photo / Yaroslav Astakhov

“You can buy a nice house here for $400,000 and we pay the same rates as Auckland, give them vans, uniforms, as many perks as we can think of and we still can’t get people.”

He said plumbers would start in the low $30-an-hour range, but would earn low $40s when they were experienced.

Apprentices would start on minimum wage, but progress fairly quickly towards $30 an hour.

“I started as an electrician at 16 and also trained as a plumber, gasfitter and drainlayer and I still think being in trade is an amazing career. There’s great opportunities, a huge amount of money to be made, great job security … it’s a great option for young people to get into.”

The Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board annual report shows there were 11,974 licensed plumbers in the 2023-24 year.

Infometrics has calculated there will be a 6.1% job open rate for plumbers next year, equal to 1166 jobs.

That means new workers equivalent to 6.1% of the present plumbing workforce will be needed to meet demands for the sector over the next year.

That includes a 2.3% increase in job numbers. The rest of the vacancies will be due to people leaving the sector because they are retiring or moving overseas.

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said his forecasts for employment growth for the next year were the weakest since 2014, and reflected a slowdown in construction activity.

“However, a significant component of demand for plumbers relates to maintenance work rather than new construction activity, hence we are still expecting job numbers to expand.

“They’ve only contracted twice since 2000, in 2010 and 2011 following the GFC and substantial construction downturn.”

Specialist trades training provider EarnLearn executive director Kaarin Gaukrodger said there were 3234 people enrolled in its plumbing, gasfitting and drainlaying programmes.

Gaukrodger said people would come into plumbing at various life stages and apprentices would not be only school leavers.

Careers NZ says there is a shortage of plumbers and those who are experienced can earn more than $53 an hour.

– RNZ