Local businesses feeling the strain of staff shortages say the current situation is not sustainable.

Ignite Wānaka general manager Naomi Lindsay said a summer labour shortage was anticipated as the usual working holiday visa holders are not available to fill jobs.

“With the borders closed, we are lacking the usual turnover of summer temp staff that many businesses rely on,” Naomi said. 

New World Three Parks co-owner Natashia Bartley said the combination of staffing woes and Covid “has become another large issue for running a business in the current climate”.  

“In these unprecedented times, we’re now seeing unprecedented staffing shortages.”  

She said it has always been difficult to find staff in Wānaka to replace the temporary student workers who resume their studies in February and March but it’s been worse this year.

“Once we lose the students that help get us through the festive season each year then February and March have always been a challenge; [but] this year we have already been extremely short since June/July and now the students are starting to leave and there is no one looking for work.”

Edgewater Resort Hotel has employment vacancies in every department.

A summer casual employment fair held in early December in Wanaka successfully married a few unemployed people with local jobs but many businesses were still left with unfilled employment vacancies.

Edgewater Resort Hotel employs around 70 staff but is currently operating well below its usual complement with vacancies across all departments, from cleaning to front of house, which have  been hard to fill.

Edgewater general manager Catherine Bone said while she is very grateful for the surge in visitors over recent weeks the resort’s workforce “was really under pressure to…keep up with demand”.  

“The team did an amazing job and have been working so hard but, despite all [their recruiting] efforts, we are about 40 percent back on our usual workforce numbers for this time of year.”

“We are noticing a huge gap in the market with a lack of backpackers who would usually backfill the full time team with seasonal positions. It has put an incredible amount of pressure on all departments,” she said. 

Catherine said they even considered reducing their levels of service but decided it  wasn’t practicable and have just “managed somehow… but it is not sustainable long term”. 

Natashia said the New World Three Parks team has long relied on working holiday staff but  with the government not issuing any working holiday visas there aren’t enough Kiwis needing work.

“Along with other local businesses we are advertising in all avenues we can and the people are just not here.”

“In my opinion, unless the government starts to issue working holiday visas again the current situation will continue to get much worse as many of our longer staying migrant workers are continuing to move on or return home,” she said.

Naomi said Ignite is working with Queenstown’s Chamber of Commerce and council's economic development team, which established Mahi Queenstown Lakes, a labour force initiative, to investigate longer term labour force requirements.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App