Recruitment manager for 45 South Rachel Ois said the company had received about 3000 applications for about 420 seasonal jobs available in its Cromwell cherry orchards this summer.
While application numbers were similar to previous years, there had been a "huge response" from New Zealanders, particularly tertiary students.
"It seems to be much higher than last year," Ms Ois said.
"I assume they’re struggling to get work elsewhere. It can also be word of mouth — we’ve always focused on employing as many Kiwis as we can, especially our local community and students coming back."
She had been in touch with students to confirm if they could commit to the season.
"The bit that probably lets us down the most is when people have holidays or decide they want to have four days off over New Year’s and that’s really busy for us," Ms Ois said.
"The response has been amazing actually, quite positive from that university, tertiary education sector ... They seem to want to work this year."
Last year, people had been applying for jobs from June, but this year the business, which has 300ha in cherry trees, opened general applications in September so the hiring process would be more manageable.
Ms Ois said she thought 45 South’s reputation as a fair employer attracted applications from new and returning workers.
"If someone was with us last year and then they come back with a friend, I’ll do what I can to give the friend a job."
Factors such as previous experience and access to accommodation and transport were considered when narrowing the field, she said.
All of 45 South’s seasonal worker roles were filled — applications would remain open all season and wait-listed applicants would be called as needed.
Clyde Orchards operations manager Kris Robb said the orchard had received more than 200 applications for seasonal work without advertising for positions — "that’s straight word of mouth".
"There’s definitely a mix of university students, high school students and backpackers proactively looking for work over the summer," Mr Robb said.
"Whether it’s just a hunger for work or we’ve got a good reputation for treating people well or a combination of those two things, it certainly makes life a lot easier."
"We really enjoy having the local kids and young adults working for us.
"The thing is, it’s almost their right to be able to get an orchard job living in this area," Mr Robb said.
He chaired industry body Southern Region Labour Governance Group and Central Otago orchards were feeling optimistic about staffing options for the coming season, he said.
"The big pinch point is usually around accommodation and making sure that we can accommodate those staff," he said.
"Central Otago is a really popular place to be in the summer and an influx of upwards of 5000 staff puts strain on ... infrastructure that’s already a bit under pressure."
This season’s harvest was expected to arrive at a similar time or slightly later than recent years, Mr Robb said.
"Fingers crossed for ... a bit more warmer, settled weather and things can catch up pretty quick.
"So it might affect the earlier fruits a little bit, but generally by the end of the season things even out."
Co-owner of 3 Kings Cherries Tim Paulin said applications had been slightly higher than the numbers of jobs available — he expected about 80 seasonal staff would be needed on the 29ha orchard above Clyde.
Local high school and university students and national backpackers would fill most of the roles and many of them were returnees, he said.
"Because we’ve got them all really coming back and we’ve got a lot of them, we don’t really push for a lot more staff.
"If we were pushing, I think there’s people out there."
