Casual worker turnover up in wake of Covid

WELLINGTON: Casual workers are being hired and fired more frequently in the wake of Covid19.

A report from human resources platform MyHR shows casual and fixedterm contracts made up a third of all new hires between March and October, compared with just 20% a year ago.

It also found these workers were losing their jobs more often, accounting for a quarter of all departures, compared with 19% last year.

MyHR head of advisory Sylvie Thrush Marsh said the increase in flexible contracts had been driven by two factors.

‘‘The first is the reduced trade and revenue for a lot of businesses over the last eight months as result of the Covid19 restrictions, so businesses are looking to increase their flexible workforces.

‘‘Also, we are all as an economy not really sure about what’s coming in the next year, so businesses are keen to keep the flexibility they now have . . . so they can accommodate any future lockdowns or future trading restrictions like the ones we saw this year.’’

The report showed new permanent contracts shrank by 12 points to 67%, but that did not mean fulltime staff were being fired for casual workers.

‘‘Permanent employees are actually having their employment ended less frequently, so it’s certainly not the case that permanent employees are being fired or made redundant and replaced with casual or fixedterm employees.’’