Olsen said while it is normal for New Zealanders to leave the country, it will be harder to convince people to return, if there are ongoing issues around housing affordability and job prospects.
That ‘brain drain’ could pose problems for society as the population ages, Olsen said.
“We need to have as many young people as we can who are still part of the economy … who are being innovative and bringing their new thinking to the game so we can be more productive,” he said.
“If we are losing our young talent and we’re not able to attract them back it makes all of [that] so much harder.”
That’s a good point.
I have wondered if the private sector can absorb the public service cuts, but that’s not thousands and thousands.
I think the private sector will be avoiding too much hiring at the moment, on account of the recession and general economic uncertainty.
Plus it doesn’t help that those government job losses are not evenly spaced across the country, but have a high proportion in one city (Wellington). That’s an assumption, but I think it’s a fair one considering the government said front line aren’t being touched (I’m not sure that’s entirely true), and since the bulk of non-frontline government staff are in Wellington.
So I’d guess now is a bad time to be a Wellington business selling non-essentials, I bet the CBD will be hoping for a few more cruise ships to prop up numbers.
Yes that does sound disproportionate.