Workforce continues to grow despite COVID-19

This has been an unprecedented year for both the economy and our wellbeing across all industries in all parts of the country, and for the construction sector there has been no exception.

Work on the majority of building and construction projects paused during the national Alert Level 4 lockdown in 2020; while during Alert Level 3, social distancing restrictions and health and safety protocols did not allow multiple trades to work in the same space at the same time. Yet in the space of a few months, the construction sector went from the largest recipient of government wage subsidies among all industries, to the largest contributor to GDP growth in the country.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE’s) new Building and Construction Sector Trends Annual Report 2021 highlights how construction activity has rebounded following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact this has had on the workforce. The report provides an overview of the building system over the past twelve months to June 2021, outlines the context within which the sector is operating and identifies emerging trends in building and construction. “The construction sector has been one of the industries with the greatest percentage increase in filled jobs since the start of the pandemic,” says Dr Cleland, Research & Analysis Manager at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

With an additional 11,000 jobs filled since June 2020, construction is the fourth largest employer in New Zealand and now makes up approximately 10 per cent of the national workforce at 275,600 people.

“High levels of demand for residential construction and strong investment in infrastructure has meant that the sector has been able to retain and grow talent,” Dr Cleland says. Research shows that the industry is becoming more diverse as it increases in size, with one-third of the construction workforce identified as being of Māori (15 per cent), Pacific (7 per cent), or Asian (11 per cent) ethnicity, up 2 per cent from 2018. The proportion of female workers has also increased in the past decade. The construction sector workforce also tends to be younger in age when compared against the national population, with almost half of construction workers aged between 15 and 39 years old. “Despite the increase in the number of construction workers over the past year, there has been growing concern around the sector’s capacity to meet the extraordinary demand we are currently experiencing,” Dr Cleland says.

Residential building activity was at elevated levels in the past year, as a result of strong demand for housing throughout New Zealand. Recent months have seen record high levels of building consents issued. For the year ended June 2021, 44,299 building consents were issued for new dwellings, breaking the previous record of 40,025 consents issued for the year ended February 1974. This demand paired with new challenges, such as restrictions at the international border, led to 76 per cent of construction businesses reporting difficulties recruiting tradespersons, according to Statistics New Zealand’s Business Operations Survey 2020.

International travel restrictions and border closures meant that the number of international students in constructionrelated education and training reduced, from a high of 2,395 students in 2018 to 2,240 in 2020. However, this gap was filled with a significant increase in domestic students, particularly in carpentry and joinery courses which saw 16,145 domestic student enrolments in 2020 alone. This could be attributed to the development of new government schemes such as the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund and Apprenticeship Boost.

“Going forward, the introduction of new and innovative building designs and technologies may help alleviate some of these issues,” Dr Cleland says.

For more information on these emerging trends, visit the MBIE website: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-andenergy/building/building-system-insights-programme/ sector-trends-reporting/annual-reports/

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. MBIE is the over-arching regulator of New Zealand’s building system. Our Building System Performance (BSP) branch provides policy and technical advice on New Zealand’s building system, rules and standards, and implements building legislation and regulations to meet New Zealand’s current and future needs.