Government of Samoa is keenly monitoring the spin-offs from the recent announcement by the New Zealand Government that their annual cap will increase which will lead to new and more seasonal employment opportunities for Samoans.
In the first year the cap for Seasonal Workers permit will increase by 1550 to 14,400 for 2019/20 and if approval has also been given for the cap to be raised then it will increase by a further 1,600 places to 16,000 in 2020/21, says a recent announcement from the Government of New Zealand.
And the Minister of Commerce Industry and Labour, Lautafi Fio Selafi Purcell is predicting at least 600 new seasonal job openings for Samoa.
Lautafi also anticipates that more jobs are in the makings from Australia’s Pacific Labour Scheme and Down Under’ Seasonal Workers Program
200 Samoans are line-up to be interviewed for possible recruitment under the Pacific Labour Mobility and will join 55 Samoans already working in Australia under the Pacific Labour scheme.
The incentive is similar to the New Zealand Seasonal Workers Scheme but the difference is in the duration of the work permits. New Zealand seasonal workers are hired for periods from three months to a maximum of seven months before returning home.
The Pacific Labour Scheme is separate from the Australia’s Seasonal Workers Program (SWP) which currently provides 648 jobs for Samoans.
And Lautafi says that another 100 Samoan SWP workers should heading to Australia soon.
The Pacific Labour initiative was launched in 2018 following a successful pilot program in northern Australia and building on the success of the Seasonal Worker Programme. This new Scheme will help meet business demand across all sectors in rural and regional Australia.
Workers from Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu are currently able to apply for low and semi-skilled employment in Australia under the Scheme.