Jobs in demand in New Zealand in 2026: what the shortage lists actually mean for you

The shortage lists, and who they are written for

The Green List is Immigration New Zealand's list of jobs it needs people for. It has two tiers. A job on Tier 1 can lead to the Straight to Residence Visa; a job on Tier 2 can lead to the Work to Residence Visa after 24 months working in that role in New Zealand. It replaced the earlier skills shortage lists in 2022, and Immigration New Zealand's Green List search shows every role on it today, with its tier and requirements.

By Immigration New Zealand's own description, the Green List only contains a small number of highly skilled roles, identified as in high demand globally and in ongoing shortage in New Zealand. It is a tool for immigration decisions, with specific qualification, registration and pay requirements.

That makes it useful if you are a migrant with one of those skills. It is less useful as a guide for a New Zealander choosing a career, because a role can be in genuine demand without being on the list, and a listed role may need years of qualifications before you could apply. Our guide to getting a job in New Zealand as a migrant covers the visa side in more detail.

Demand versus vacancies versus pay

"In demand" can mean three different things, and it helps to separate them:

• Demand: employers need the skill and struggle to find it. This is what shortage lists try to capture.
• Vacancies: how many jobs are actually advertised. A large field can have many vacancies without any shortage, simply because it is large.
• Pay: whether employers are paying more to attract people. Rising pay is often the clearest sign of a real shortage.

A field that scores well on all three is a strong bet. One with plenty of vacancies but flat pay may be easy to enter but hard to progress in. One on a shortage list with few local vacancies may need you to move for work.

To test a field yourself, look at three things over a month: how many ads there are for the role in your region, whether those ads show pay and how it compares with a year ago, and how quickly employers are re-advertising. Recruiters who specialise in the field can often tell you where the real shortages are, and people already in the work will tell you how easy it is to get a first job. Tahatū's occupation profiles set out the training and typical pay for each role, and link to current job listings for it.

What the labour market data shows right now

The wider market matters too. In the June 2026 quarter, Stats NZ put unemployment at 5.6%, or 171,000 people, and underutilisation, which also counts people who want more hours than they have, at 440,000. More people looking for work means more competition for most advertised roles, even in fields where employers report shortages.

So a field being "in demand" does not guarantee a quick hire, particularly at entry level. It is worth checking the current state of hiring before you commit to retraining. The NZ job market right now shows the latest public employment figures and how hiring moves through the year, which helps you time a search and set expectations.

Retraining routes into a shortage role

If a field genuinely suits you and is short of people, there are usually several ways in:

• Apprenticeships, for the trades, where you train while earning.
• Short courses and certificates, for roles where a specific ticket or licence is the barrier.
• Employer-run training, in some public services and large organisations.
• Longer study, for regulated professions, which takes the most time and money.

Tahatū's occupation profiles set out the training for each role and its typical pay. Our guide to changing careers in New Zealand covers how to close the gap between where you are and what a new field asks for.

Building a pipeline in one field

Whichever field you choose, focus beats scatter. Pick one field, find the employers who hire for it, set job alerts, and build a steady pipeline of applications and conversations in that area. A search spread thinly across five unrelated fields is harder to sustain and produces weaker applications.

In jobtracker.co.nz, each role you save keeps its stage, dates and take-home pay on one board, so you can see how a search in one field is progressing, and whether it is time to widen it.

Build a pipeline in the field you choose