Recent population data released by Statistics New Zealand should have made all employers in this country stand up and notice, including road transport operators. 

A couple of headline figures we should all be concerned about are that during the last year New Zealand’s working age population shrank by 0.2 percent, with a massive 3.1 percent reduction in the number of people in their 20s. The number of 20 to 39-year-olds was down 0.7 percent and those aged 25 to 29 dropped a whopping 4 percent.

All this was in the year up to March 2022, a year where the borders were mostly closed and there was heightened uncertainty around international travel. Now that borders have reo...