Employment in New Zealand’s services sector is forecast to grow over the next five years, according to new regional economic updates released by ServiceIQ, the industry training organisation for tourism, travel, retail, retail supply chain, aviation, hospitality and museums.

Based on ServiceIQ’s forecasts, Auckland is set to have the most job opportunities in the services sector between now and 2024, with 23,407 new job openings, while Queenstown-Lakes District is set to be the fastest growing, at 27.9 per cent.

The highest number of new job openings are predicted to be in tourism, retail and retail supply chain and the cafés, bars and restaurants sector.

ServiceIQ CEO Andrew McSweeney said the massive number of job openings means that workplace training is more important than ever before.

“With a lot of new recruits entering the industry, it’s vitally important they get the right skills not only to do a great job but also to help them use the opportunity to start building a career by learning while they earn,” he said.

The updates come after ServiceIQ first alerted Parliament in 2017 of the need to address a looming skills shortage in New Zealand’s retail, hospitality, aviation, travel, tourism and museum industries.

The organisation is working with secondary schools and industry to offer students a wide range of Gateway programmes that give them real hands-on experience of what it’s like to work in retail, hospitality, aviation and tourism, and launching on-job training programmes that give people the essential skills they need for retail, tourism and hospitality roles.