Digital economy and communications minister Dr David Clark has announced that 600 border exemptions have been granted to software and application programmers, ICT managers and security specialists, and multimedia specialists.
The reason for this is that the IT sector is now one of New Zealand’s top three exporters, and jobs in tech have been growing at twice the rate of the general economy. This sector had continued to grow during the Covid-19 pandemic, putting pressure on the demand for talent.
Furthermore, the Government has also approved border class exceptions for key agricultural jobs including 200 mobile plant machinery operators, 40 shearers and 50 wool handlers to support key autumn harvest requirements and relieve workforce pressures created by COVID-19.
The existing class border exception for 200 dairy workers has also been altered to remove the previous split of 150 assistant dairy farm managers and 50 dairy farm assistants. There’s huge demand for dairy farm assistants, so the Government is providing more flexibility for the dairy sector to fill jobs up to the maximum of 200 where they see the strongest need.
By now, the primary sector has received more than 5,100 class exceptions since June 2020 – making it close to healthcare for the most industry exceptions.
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