Select Personnel principal Karen Bardwell is looking offshore for skilled staff, particularly engineers, and she has employed a staff member with European contacts to help overseas recruitment.
"Otago has been through a particularly tough year. People were laid off and some of those people disappeared to other regions. Things are starting to pick up and we are facing a shortage of good qualified labour."
One of the main concerns was sourcing infrastructure engineers as the rebuilding of Christchurch got under way, she said. Engineers would be sucked out of all regions to help in Christchurch, leaving gaps for projects in other centres.
Mrs Bardwell and her staff were running regular planning meetings to forecast the gaps in the market and where those skills could be found.
"We are getting people coming down from Christchurch but they are not a good long-term option. They still don't know what they want to do: stay here or go back. They have had a lot of upheaval, and that's understandable, but they are not a sustainable option for our employers."
There did not appear to be any premium being paid for workers going to Christchurch and there was no competition on price, she said.
But she had noticed Select had missed out on some opportunities because it was looking for "quality" while others just wanted to fill the position.
Otago building contractors contacted confirmed there was a shortage of skilled labour, particularly carpenters. The Government was encouraging the hiring of apprentices but those apprentices had to be supervised by a skilled trades person, and they were in short supply.
"We went through this once before. The big thing is getting apprentices trained up before the industry goes quiet again," one contractor, who asked not to be named, said.
Agencies used by building contractors were finding it hard to supply qualified labour. Some builders were coming from overseas but their qualifications were sometimes not up to New Zealand standards.
So far, Dunedin contractors were not competing on price for skilled staff but that could change when the Christchurch rebuilding contracts were signed.
The Christchurch temporary housing contracts seemed stalled because of the lack of builders.
Otago-Southland Employers Association chief executive John Scandrett said the association had for many months received wide-ranging comments of concern around regional skilled labour shortages.
Employers had, in many cases and where they could, been increasing investment in staff training.
"We here have certainly seen more corporate funds applied towards training but much greater efforts are needed, we believe.
"The trouble we have in this small country is that the employment base is not large enough to hold a ready reserve of suitable qualified top-end professional, technical and trades people."
Business New Zealand had been applying pressure on the Government and education providers to better and more quickly match the supply and demand elements across the skills sector, Mr Scandrett said.
The time needed to produce well-qualified people was too great.
The association's membership was consistently placing top-end skill shortage concerns on the agenda, he said.
"There is now the added dimension of better benefit through potential relocation to Australia, if not the North Island.
"I shudder to think what the shape of the skilled market will look like after the paperwork is finally finished in Christchurch and the rebuild begins," Mr Scandrett said.
A Manpower New Zealand talent shortage survey showed that 44% of employers in New Zealand were experiencing difficulty filling critical positions.
The survey, now in its sixth year, showed the New Zealand results were well above the global average of 34% but were in line with the Asia-Pacific result of 45%.
Across the country, engineers, sales representatives and technicians positions were the most difficult to fill.
Manpower general manager Michelle Visser said the 14% jump in employers reporting difficulty in finding staff, from the 30% at the same time last year, suggested the talent shortage was a growing problem.
"While not all employers are feeling the pain associated with the global talent shortage, external forces mean it is likely they will soon feel pressure."
Businesses needed to adopt a long-term approach to ensuring they had the talent to achieve their business objectives, she said. Although skills could not be plucked out of thin air in the short term, a robust workforce strategy would ensure a company's business strategy was supported by having the talented people needed to execute it, Ms Visser said.
