New Zealand's tech sector is diverse and advanced. It’s a breeding ground for innovation and competes successfully on the world stage.
Big business, competing globally
New Zealand’s information and communications technologies (ICT) sector is diverse, covering wireless infrastructure, health IT, digital content, payments, geospatial, telecommunications, agricultural technology and more. Whatever your niche or speciality, there could well be opportunities here.
ICT is a major and growing business for New Zealand, contributing over $30 billion to GDP in 2014 (around 40% attributable to telecommunications) and growing at over 9% a year.
It’s a very outwardly focused industry that competes successfully around the world. Exports have been growing at 14% a year, reaching $930m in 2014.
New Zealand's ICT companies have earned an international reputation for being flexible, resilient, adaptable and entrepreneurial. Many high-profile projects have come out of our ICT industry.
The world's most advanced, safest wireless charging system comes from PowerbyProxi, an offshoot of Auckland University. The business is now part-funded by Korean giant Samsung and in 2014 signed a licensing deal with US Fortune 500 company Texas Instruments (TI).
A robotic exoskeleton that allows paralysed people to stand and walk, developed by New Zealand's Rex Bionics, is used in rehab clinics and research hospitals in the US, Europe and Asia.
Accounting software developed by cloud accounting business Xero helped the company top Forbes' list of 'Most Innovative Growth Companies' in 2014.
A security solution from Gallagher was named 'Best Perimeter Protection Product/System' in the US Government Security News 'Homeland Security Awards' in 2014.
Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, shot at 48 frames per second has pioneered HFR (High Frame Rate) film production.
Several global industry leaders have chosen New Zealand as a base for their ICT operations, including the global IT services provider Fujitsu.
IT people needed
The number of businesses in the sector topped 10,000 for the first time in 2014 and direct employment grew 12% to 26,690. In the wider economy, nearly 75,000 people are employed in ICT-related roles.
Growing digitisation and increased use of ICT across the economy is generating employment growth across a range of skill-sets, including software engineering and development, project managers, marketers, sales, administrators and business analysts.
The subsector driving most growth is computer system design: wages/salaries in this area are twice the New Zealand average.
Interactive gaming is another fast-growing subsector which is now a multi-million dollar export industry.
Across the wider economy, job growth in ICT-related occupations has been driven by ‘Software and Applications Programmers’ and ‘ICT Business and Systems Analysts’.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment reported in 2014 that “more firms in the sector reported vacancies, and that vacancies are hard to fill, than any other sector in the economy”.
It all adds up to one thing - opportunity.
What jobs and where
Immigration New Zealand has lists of skill shortages.
If you are offered a job which appears on a skill shortage list and you have the qualifications and experience to match, getting a work visa will be easier. This is because the Government has identified that employers need to recruit people from overseas to help meet demand for your skills.
But if your job is not on a shortage list, don’t be disheartened. There are other work and resident visa options. IT jobs on the lists include:
- business analyst
- developer programmer
- software engineer
- project manager
- security specialist
- software tester
- telecommunications network engineer
- database administrator
- QA engineer.
While most IT jobs are in the main centres (Auckland 50%, Wellington 27%, Christchurch 12%), there are opportunities right across New Zealand. That’s because medium to large businesses and government departments everywhere employ their own IT professionals and support staff.
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