Photos: Supplied / Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
The fast growing health-tech sector has added more than 1200 jobs last year, employing many low-skilled workers.
Health-tech firms generated $2.9 billion in revenue in 2021 according to a TIN sector report, however the average sector wage fell 0.8 percent to $89,308 from $90,036 in 2020.
Technology Business Network managing director Greg Shanahan said the drop in average pay was because many of the new jobs were entry level factory positions, rather than jobs for highly skilled immigrant workers who had trouble entering the country.
He said Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was the biggest contributor to growth, with about 1000 new jobs located in South Auckland.
“So with an average wage of roughly $90,000 per employee, you’re talking to close to $100 million of new wages coming into Auckland, primarily the South Auckland economy, which is obviously good for New Zealand” he said.
“And so this means that people historically who have been under-represented in tech, particularly Maori, Pasifika and migrant communities, there is greater demand for the skills that they have and greater efforts to retrain them into tech-relevant careers.”
Shanahan said the health-tech sector had tripled in size over the past decade at a faster rate than the rest of the tech sector.
He said there were likely to continue to be more jobs in manufacturing.
“Companies like Fisher and Paykel – are a great opportunity for people to get entry level jobs and develop within the company and go to higher wages than in other industries.”
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