Emigration Focus: New Zealand’s Best Paying Jobs
Posted by Josh Jeffery on January 3rd, 2018.
New Zealand has long been a hugely popular emigration destination due to its stunning sights, great food and friendly, laid back culture.
Due to its surge in popularity it’s unsurprisingly becoming more expensive to move there. But as with any country, certain jobs are high in demand and offer greater salary potential – helping to mitigate some of those higher costs.
So what are some of New Zealand’s best paying jobs? Read on to see which roles are hot right now and whether you’ve got the right skills to command a higher salary in New Zealand.
Consulting and Strategy
Perhaps the best paid jobs in New Zealand are those in the consulting and strategy sector. The average jobs in this area offer pay packets of over six figures in NZD.
These roles are obviously for those with a considerable amount of experience and expertise in management and running projects, and are highly in demand in New Zealand as the nation’s population and economy continues to grow apace.
There are a variety of management and coordination jobs across many sectors, with large organisations and companies like Fonterra and Progressive Enterprises willing to pay extra to get the edge on high level management and planning. However, due to the highly competitive nature of these jobs, it’s perhaps not as easy to land one as some of the others on this list!
Information Technology
This sector is a big player in New Zealand’s rapidly growing economy. Another competitive area and one with multiple high-paying jobs, many employers in New Zealand are willing to pay handsomely for Information Technology Architects and Managers especially. These experts are still in high demand, and while experience for architects is definitely expected it’s not too uncommon for IT graduates to search for IT management roles.
Of course, IT consultants and experts with IT security are also paid well. The biggest pay packets in the IT sector are given in New Zealand’s capital of Wellington. Wellington’s average salary in IT is over NZ$100,000 as the capital accelerates its investments in modern tech.
Healthcare and Medical
Unsurprisingly, highly qualified medical professionals are in command of some of New Zealand’s most sought-after skillsets and subsequently take some of the nation’s most highly paid roles.
Anaesthetists are in particularly high demand, as are pathologists and other high-level medical professionals. Due to the long training period involved in these professions, there is still something of a skills shortage in New Zealand’s rapidly growing population.
In most of New Zealand’s most populace regions, General Practitioners (GPs) have among the healthiest salaries in the nation according to NZ job website Seek. In fact, in Canterbury a GP’s salary can average at a whopping NZ$144,944.
Skills Shortages are Key
A skills shortage is essentially when there is demand for skilled workers but not a big enough pool of qualified individuals to meet that demand.
As mentioned in the healthcare section, New Zealand is suffering from something of a skills shortage in certain areas. While the populace is growing, there aren’t currently enough working-age professionals to take the roles being vacated by the older, more experienced generation.
New Zealand is currently experiencing rapid technological infrastructure upgrades, as well booms in building in Canterbury and Auckland.
Amid the surge in building projects, there is a significant skills shortage in the construction sector – especially in Canterbury. Due to the high demand for those skills, you can expect a higher-than-average salary for construction roles than elsewhere in the country.
If you’d like to know whether your skills are in demand in New Zealand, you can check out the Government’s skills shortage lists. While the short term shortage list can change regularly, the Long Term Skill Shortage List (LTSSL) features jobs that are in constant demand. Many jobs in the Engineering and healthcare sectors are particularly sought after.
It’s always worth keeping an eye on the news too. For example, in December 2017 it was reported that New Zealand’s digital skills shortage is worsening and will continue to worsen as businesses search for software developers and managers.
Enjoy a Better Work-Life Balance
With New Zealand’s economy growing quickly and businesses actively seeking skilled workers to stay ahead of the game, there are some exciting employment opportunities for foreign workers.
What’s more, New Zealand is known for fostering a laid back lifestyle and positive work-life balance.
If you’re hoping to progress your career and enjoy a change of scene in 2018, New Zealand could be the country for you!
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