What progress, if any, since the Employment Action Plan was published in August 2024 has been made on the Plan's action 8 regarding an 'Essential Worker' workforce planning mechanism?

Answer

The Employment Action Plan is no longer a current strategy and has been incorporated into Going for Growth. The ongoing work into the action ‘Investigate the establishment of an “Essential Worker” workforce planning mechanism to better plan for skill or labour shortages in the long term’ has continued, reflecting the commitment to this work in the National/NZ First coalition agreement. Officials have continued to provide me advice on the progression this work.