Experienced construction candidates remain in such high demand that they often receive multiple job offers, says recruiting experts Hays.
Quantity Surveyors, Site Managers and good skilled trades and labour are among the skills in such short supply that employers will move quickly and offer career progression in order to secure their preferred candidate.
“Most regions in New Zealand are experiencing increased residential activity while the unprecedented investment in commercial construction and transport projects across Auckland is adding to the significant skill shortage,” says Jason Walker, Managing Director of Hays in New Zealand.
“In Auckland, residential companies are busier than ever and are growing their teams. Some candidates are moving to the Bay Of Plenty due to the number of residential developments there as well as for a lifestyle change, which adds to the shortage of necessary construction skills. Commercial construction is also very active, with new names entering the market and stretching the workforce.
“The Wellington market is moving forward slowly with a number of large private and government commercial construction projects either underway or announced. Continued seismic strengthening work is adding to the skill shortage, as are the growing civil construction and residential markets.
“In Christchurch the number of commercial projects valued above $5 million is increasing. With larger high-profile projects underway, certain skills are in high demand,” he said.The Hays Quarterly Report for July to September 2016 names the following hotspots of construction hiring activity:
• In Auckland Residential Quantity Surveyors with new build experience rather than earthquake recovery experience are in high demand. We’re also seeing a need for senior and professional candidates with strong experience due to the Auckland housing shortage. Areas like Pukekohe, Pokeno and Hobsonville are all being developed into new subdivisions and companies are moving into the Auckland market, which is adding to demand.
• Commercial Quantity Surveyors with New Zealand experience are needed too. Major projects add to the already busy commercial sector and the demand for these candidates.
• Senior Commercial Estimators are sought by companies moving into the Auckland market. Employers want candidates with New Zealand experience. Turnover is adding to demand.
• Carpenters and experienced and/or qualified Builders are in high demand for residential work. Many of the new subdivisions are on the outskirts of Auckland and not easily accessible via public transport, which can limit candidate supply.
• Plumbers (commercial and maintenance) are also needed due to the high levels of new builds and refurbishments. Companies are competing with each other to hold onto staff.
• Machine Operators (digger/roller/grader) are needed for new subdivision projects. Major upgrades on the motorways and roads are adding to demand. Every operator needs to be ticketed, however the cost of attaining tickets is high and often people cannot afford them.
• Wellington needs mid to senior level Project Managers, particularly in interiors and commercial fit-out. Qualified intermediate to senior Quantity Surveyors with commercial construction experience are sought too, as are Site Managers with large-scale commercial construction experience gained in New Zealand, Australia or the UK. Candidates must be well presented with good communication skills for client facing roles.
• In Christchurch Forepersons with the ability to manage a site while also working on the tools are in demand as the commercial sector ramps up.
• Site Managers are needed in the commercial sector to manage programs, sub contractors and the day-to-day running of the site. Health and safety changes have also seen a large portion of health and safety responsibility fall to the Site Manager, which further adds to demand.
• Project Directors are sought too as larger, more high profile projects commence in Christchurch. These are usually rare opportunities but overseas consultancies as well as local tier 1 contractors are currently interested in local candidates.
• Fit-out and commercial Carpenters with experience in alloy partitions, steel stud and ceiling fixing are in demand as the commercial build continues and a lot of the current local workforce looks to roles in Auckland.
• In Queenstown commercial and residential Carpenters are in high demand. With major development starting in Wanaka the demand across Otago will grow.
• Commercial Plumbers and Electricians are also sought. Most jobs are at fit-out stage and NZ qualified candidates are in high demand.
• Plant and Machine Operators are also sought in the civil market with a class 2 licence or above.
• Certified and CCC approved Drain Layers and Senior Concrete Cutters are needed too. The demand is now rising due to repair work within the SCIRT program.
• The UFB rollout has increased demand for Senior Cable Joiners.
To see the full list of skills in demand and trends for your industry, please visit hays.net.nz/report
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Fletcher Building Limited (Fletcher Building) announces it has completed the transaction to acquire New Zealand and Fiji road construction and maintenance business Higgins for a purchase price of NZ$303 million.
The businesses acquired as part of this transaction comprise principally:
Other related businesses including the manufacture of traffic signs, bitumen tanks and sprayers
Higgins’ ready-mix concrete and property businesses are excluded from the transaction which has been cleared by all relevant New Zealand and Fijian regulatory authorities.
A Fletcher Building release Frriday 29 July 2016
The Tauranga Harbour Marine Precinct – known as Vessel Works - will be home to New Zealand's largest-capacity mobile vessel hoist when it opens for business mid next year.
Tauranga City Council Chief Executive, Garry Poole, and Claudio Carlon, Sales Manager of Vessel Hoists for Italian engineering company Cimolai Technology, today signed an agreement to formalise the purchase of the new vessel hoist.
Mr Poole said the hoist – which was capable of lifting commercial and recreational vessels up to 350 tonnes, 12m wide and 45m long – would allow businesses in the Marine Precinct to lift, move and store some of the larger commercial fishing and work boats from the region and further afield. The extra width of the machine would also allow the precinct to attract catamaran vessels such as inner-harbour fast ferries.
“The sheer capacity of the mobile hoist will really give the precinct the competitive edge when it comes to servicing these vessels, opening up business opportunities for the companies establishing themselves there and boosting Tauranga's reputation as a leading marine industry service provider,” Mr Poole said.
For more information on the project website: www.vesselworks.co.nz
Working in collaboration with Cycling New Zealand, High Performance Sport and New Zealand track athletes, including World Champion Sprinters Sam Webster, Eddie Dawkins and Ethan Mitchell, Avanti have created a product, that by all data collected, should give the kiwi team an edge against the rest of the world.
Kim Struthers, Country Manager commented, ‘we’re really excited to have the pinnacle of Avanti Design Technology (ADT), a design philosophy we incorporate in every Avanti bike, showcased on the world stage.’
Avanti started working on this project with Cycling New Zealand in August 2013, with strain gauge testing at the Invercargill Velodrome to compare the track platform Avanti had in the market at the time against a well-known competitor track bike. The results from this testing proved Avanti’s model to be a better race bike and encouraged Avanti engineers with the challenge on how to make the Avanti track bike even better.
Craig Palmer, Cycling New Zealand Sport Scientist commented, ‘In Avanti we wanted a partnership where we were investing in experience, expertise and technology. We knew if we partnered with the right company the fastest bike would be the end result, and we’ve achieved that.’
Using the key objectives of a track bike; to be aerodynamic, lightweight and stiff, new concepts were drafted with each, with factors being pushing each as far as they could go without seeing a negative impact on another factor. Utilising 3D printing Avanti was able to test individual aspects of the frame at Auckland University’s wind tunnel, before committing to producing a frame for further testing. Using extensive Aerodynamic simulation software (CFD) and structural simulation software (FEA) a radical new front end design was born.
David Higgins, Avanti Lead Engineer commented, ‘this was no longer an evolution of the current Avanti track bikes, but a whole new concept in structural and aerodynamic design’.
Using this technology Avanti created their brand new Avanti Pista Pursuit Team, the track weapon to be ridden by all New Zealand Pursuit riders racing at Rio.
The Sprint bike, The Avanti Pista Team, Olympic Edition, looks at similar factors to the Pursuit bike, but with more emphasis on being lightweight while managing the immense loads the Sprinters put out. Ethan Mitchell said of the Avanti Pista Team, Olympic Edition project ‘it’s been amazing, we’ve never really had the opportunity to be able to bounce ideas on how to build ideas on something that we ride, it’s been special to be able to do that and come together to make a bike that is individualised for us.’
Mark Elliott, Cycling New Zealand High Performance Director commented ‘Avanti has done something we’ve never seen before in a bike, it’s going to be pretty special when we see it in Rio.’
Avanti have a history with the Olympic Games. The Kiwi bike company has been involved in the last four Olympic Games Avanti achieving track medals. This Olympic cycle Avanti have embarked on their most technology-driven project yet. Using World leading Formula 1 technology and designed and tested in New Zealand, by New Zealanders, for the New Zealand Olympic team is a true Kiwi innovation piece Kiwis can be proud of.
The New Zealand Olympic Team ride Avanti Incs at the Olympic Village
Bulk Carrier’s arrival emphasises port’s role as nation’s fertiliser handling hub.
The arrival at Napier in August of the bulk carrier Mollie Manx emphasises the port’s role as New Zealand’s fertiliser hub.
The 60,000 tonne vessel was built six years ago and calls into Napier before resuming its outward voyage to Laayoune the capital of Western Sahara.
The vessel is registered in the Isle of Man and is owned by LT Ugland Shipping which specialises in owning large-capacity bulk carriers. It was built at the Tsuneishi Phillipine Shipyard.
Vessels in the Ugland fleet are all named after family members or something close to the family, in the case of Molly Manx, the family pet dog.
Port of Napier’s deep-water handling, especially in rapid turnaround, of this type of large scale bulk carrier, ensures that Hawkes Bay remains the centre of the fertiliser sector.
Meanwhile, the family ship owning company is run from the Isle of Man by founder Lars Ugland (pictured) and the Isle of Man flagged vessels are operated by specialist time and voyage charterers.In the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man is a British self governing Crown Dependency and makes its own laws and sets its own taxes. The Isle of Man is a full Maritime Convention nation.
From The MSCNewsWire reporters' desk Sunday 31 July 2016
Problem hiding in plain sight
We asked MSC Newswire's European correspondent for an update on the emergency in France........
You have evaluated at close hand the terrorism in France. Are there any lessons that can be learned by New Zealand?We can see clearly an ingrained mind-set in both countries centred on the it-can’t happen here syndrome. The difference being that in France, it has happened there. We can see also a facilitating over-tolerance in both countries and at many levels of the community in both countries in regard to accepting and even condoning anti-social behaviourBe more specific here.I will. In both countries if the police in the interest of law and order are obliged to use force of arms in pursuit of their purpose and someone is shot the reaction is the same. It is that the police are always in the wrong, and that the person shot was always somehow in the right. It is like that.This sympathy for the perceived underdog is a characteristic in both countries?In France, and as I have noted before, this extreme tendency to see everything from the underdog’s point of view dates back to the French Revolution and is enshrined in law. In the New Zealand case it is part of the wider Ned Kelly larrikin syndrome. .You seem to be saying that there is a head-in-the-sand attitude by the authorities?In France this has been made manifest for years. The more the problem built up, the more the authorities hoped it would go away. The riots in the suburbs of France’s main cities several years ago was a wake-up call. But the authorities went back to sleep.In France now, what about more recent events?Here is one lesson for New Zealand. It has only just been mooted in France that the mosques for example are in fact financed by countries such as Saudi Arabia and in order to pacify their own extremists, notably the Waahabis. Until just a few days ago, hours even, the received wisdom was that these structures were financed by the local community faithful.How would this be a threat to New Zealand?The point here is that the French government ardently, some might say, fanatically, pursues money trails in terms of both inward and outward flows. So here is an example of something so obvious taking place that quite genuinely none of the money trail bloodhounds appear to have noticed it. It would be comforting to think that these extremely tough financial police simply cut the local faithful some slack. But I have this horrible feeling that the financing of the mosques simply never went onto the official agenda.Can you be more precise how this is a lesson relevant to New Zealand?In addition to the source of the financing, there has been raised the matter of the spill-over. This is the money over and above that which was required. What has happened to it?
From the MSCNewsWire reporers' desk July 30, 2016
Statistics NZ is taking another step toward being ‘digital by default’ by moving three more business surveys online, Statistics Minister Craig Foss says.
The three surveys — Quarterly Economic Survey of Manufacturing, Quarterly Wholesale Trade Survey and Quarterly Business Survey — are now available online for the June 2016 quarter.
“This is great news for many business owners and operators who can now spend less time on administration and more time looking after their customers. It’s also great news for Statistics NZ — a leading agency in the drive to digitise and modernise government services,” Mr Foss says.
“Delivering better online services is a key focus of the Government’s Better for Business programme.
“Filling out these surveys online should be fast and easy, saving businesses time while also providing important information on quarterly financial performance.
“About 30,000 farmers are already enjoying the benefits of online surveys after the Agricultural Production Survey went digital last year. Statistics NZ is committed to getting all its business surveys online in the next couple of years.”
Paper forms for all surveys are still available.
Thursday, July 28, 2016 — DUBAI, U.A.E., 28 July, 2016: Emirates aircraft have travelled over 432 million kilometres since January 2016, the equivalent of traversing the globe more than 10,700 times. Click here to watch a time-lapse video capturing Emirates arrivals and departures at its hub in Dubai.
A typical week sees the airline operating more than 3,600 flights, with over 96,000 flights operated in the first half of 2016. Emirates is the world’s largest international airline currently serving 154 destinations across 81 countries on six continents operating 252 aircraft. The airline is also the largest operator of the Airbus A380, with 81 of these double-decker aircraft serving over 40 global destinations. Over 50 million passengers have flown on the Emirates A380 since it began service in 2008. Emirates also operates the largest family of Boeing 777 aircraft, with 157 of these popular wide-bodies connecting Dubai to 109 destinations around the world. The Emirates Boeing 777 has flown over 226 million passengers since 2004.
Gatwick Airport has announced it is increasing its investment in improving the airport over the next several years by an extra £200 million.
Since becoming privately owned in 2009, around £1.3 billion has been spent on developments to the airport and with this latest increase in investment, the overall spend is expected to hit £2.5 billion by 2021.
The new Capital Investment Programme (2016 to 2021) includes expansions to the North and South Terminal departure lounges and immigration halls, improvements to the shopping facilities, further parking stands for aircraft and taxiway optimisation.
The developments to the airport are being made due to the significantly increasing number of passengers using it. Over the past seven years, the number of annual passengers has increased from 31 million to 41 million. The new investment will also allow for further plans to be put forward as to how to offer the best experience for the increasing amount of passengers.
Gatwick Airport’s CEO, Stewart Wingate, said: “As Gatwick rapidly approaches full capacity, this increased investment paves the way for our second runway project. As we enter a new era for Britain, we must be agile and decisive as a country to show the world that we are open for business.
“This investment will also make sure that we can continue Gatwick’s record growth and transformation. Our total investment since coming into private ownership now stands at £2.5 billion as we operate the world’s most efficient single runway airport.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has also visited the airport and is fully behind the further investment: “Gatwick is the front door to London for millions of visitors to our city and I salute their decision to spend another £200m on improvements to the airport. They have put together a formidable plan that is a fantastic display of their confidence in London.”
Process consolidation at key Westland meat plant
In 2015 ANZCO implemented a policy to centralise process rendering on its Canterbury plant at Ashburton. This was part of ANZCO’s strategy of applying to the best advantage the geographical spread of its New Zealand-wide processing sites in order to achieve freshness of products.
The consolidation meant that the ANZCO plant at Kokiri, near Greymouth, now concentrated on meat cuts and associated chilling and blast freezing along with hide preservation and products in thepharmaceutical sphere.
It also meant that the Kokiri plant was now required to transport to the centralised Canterbury plant all its rendering by products for further processing.
Enter now Napier Engineering and Contracting the specialist food processing machinery engineer in the medium-to-heavy capability range.
Napier Engineering now installed at ANZCO at Kokiri the collection, conveyor, and delivery conduit that ensured the rapid and sealed delivery of the processing by products to refrigerated transport.In the photograph the conveyor system operator at ANZCO’s Kokiri plant Steve Kilkelly points to the screw elevator that takes the by-products from the plant to the loading system to be transported to ANZCO at Ashburton.
From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk Friday 29 July, 2016