The Green Party is calling for active government investment to create jobs at home, after new research found the rise in young people moving overseas since 2023 will cost the country $76 billion in GDP over the next four decades
“A Green Government will not let New Zealanders be passengers in their own economy. We will ensure active government investment drives higher wages, sustained innovation, better education, resilient infrastructure, healthy nature and a country we can be proud of. This is how we give young people hope to stay and build this beautiful country,” says Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
The research, commissioned by the Party, found the rise in young New Zealanders moving overseas since 2023 will cost the country $76 billion in GDP over the next four decades.
“New Zealand loses $40 billion in earnings and $6 billion in public investment and tax revenue that it will not get back - unless something serious changes. That is why we're campaigning to change this Government.”
"We all feel the cost of our friends and family leaving the country. For the last three years, Christopher Luxon has told young people to move to where the jobs are. With his dire economic management, that's meant record numbers going overseas."
"If the right-wing refuses to acknowledge that very human cost, they should be capable of facing the cold, hard data. The loss of talent managed by Christopher Luxon could cost our country $76 billion in foregone GDP."
"It's normal for a number of young people to want to go on their OE. But what we've seen in the last three years is not normal."
"New Zealanders deserve a real economic development plan, which means serious investment in our economy, our people, our infrastructure and our resilience. That's what the Greens are providing, showing how we can create 64,000 new jobs and fix what is so clearly broken."
The report finds 77,500 New Zealand citizens aged 18 to 30 left the country long term between 2023 and 2025. That is about 26,000 a year, around 60 per cent more than the 2016 to 2019 average, and roughly 30,000 more young people than if pre-COVID levels had held.
"Young people are following the jobs. The report finds that departures of people in their twenties rise and fall with the gap between unemployment here and in Australia, where about two thirds of departing citizens go. That gap is now 1.2 percentage points, the widest since 2012."
Between the June 2023 and June 2026 quarters, the number of employed people aged 20 to 29 fell by 40,400, or 7.4 per cent. Unemployment among 15 to 24-year-olds reached 17.2 per cent in the June 2026 quarter.
"There is no shortage of creativity, hard work and innovation in this beautiful country – but there has been a shortage of political leadership. The Greens have the plan to fix that."
"We do not need to wave goodbye to young people who don't actually want to leave this country. We can have a sensible Government that invests in improving lives, lowering the cost of living, stimulating employment and economic resilience. That's why the Greens exist," says Swarbrick.