In what should be news to no one, the latest quarterly Queenstown-Lakes’ labour market snapshot report points towards a ‘‘challenging summer’’ for employers.

The report, commissioned by Queenstown’s council, shows a 330.4% increase in local job ads listed on Jobfix between September 2021 and 2022.

Worker availability for the same period’s down 36.8% for people on employer-assisted visas, and down 52% for those classified as ‘‘job-seekers’’ in the district.

That’s despite an overall 3.6% increase in filled jobs in the district over the past year.

Queenstown council’s economic development manager Peter Harris says that increase masks a drop of 1043 jobs in accommodation and food service employment this September, compared to September, 2019.

Jobs mostly grew in construction, up 582, professional services (304), recreational services (211), manufacturing (191) and health (190).

Harris says the report, prepared by Arrowtown economist Benje Patterson, underscores the span of the workforce challenges, and the need to change to achieve greater stability for businesses.

‘‘While it’s encouraging to see early signs of diversification in job growth outside of the hospitality industry, there’s a long way to go.’’

Patterson says the hospitality and accommodation sector alone would need to expand its headcount by 1500 workers just to return to its pre-Covid summer level.

‘‘Businesses would be wise, wherever possible, to invest in systems and technological solutions to help them be able to maintain their yield with a leaner workforce.’’

Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce business growth head Sharon Fifield says innovation’s going to be critical for businesses to operate with continuing low labour supply.

‘‘Many businesses are having to close their doors one or two days a week just to give their staff a break, which is really tough.

‘‘To add to their worries, attracting more staff is proving difficult due to a lack of available housing.

‘‘It’s great to see so many businesses providing worker accommodation, but there is still quite a gap in supply.’’

Harris says businesses are losing income because they can’t offer their normal levels of service, and visitors have fewer options about what they can do in the district.

‘‘By adding data to the issue, the QLDC economic development team hopes it helps business and government leaders understand the scale of the challenge and prompts decisions that help relieve the pressure.’’

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