Photo / FileThe Government needs to restrict the entry of low-wage, low-skill workers on short-term visas if it wants to boost economic productivity, according to a new study by the NZ Institute of Economic Research. That would mean being less reliant on short-term visa workers to fill low-wage positions - like those that the horticultural sector. The NZIER has produced the report, "Migration and New Zealand's Frontier Firms", for the Productivity Commission as part of its ongoing work to improve the country's economic output. "Migration policies that allow all New Zealand firms access to low-cost foreign labour are likely to inhibit many of those firms from moving closer to the domestic productivity frontier," the report concludes. "We were asked to look at whether the migration policy could be used to boost growth in those firms."

Source: New Zealand Herald November 29, 2020 16:03 UTC