What My Research Found About New Zealand’s Arborist Skill Shortage

A summary of research into labour shortages in the New Zealand arboriculture industry

Introduction

Across New Zealand’s arboriculture industry, a familiar complaint is often heard. Skilled arborists are difficult to find.

Business owners frequently report that experienced climbers and crew leaders are in short supply, while industry organisations regularly highlight labour shortages as one of the sector’s most pressing challenges.

At first glance the issue appears straightforward. When workers are scarce, wages should rise until more people enter the occupation. Yet arboriculture presents an interesting puzzle. Despite persistent reports of labour shortages, wages have historically remained relatively modest when compared with the skill, responsibility, and physical demands involved in the work.

This contradiction formed the basis of my 2021 Master of Business Studies thesis, Skill mismatches and worker shortages in the New Zealand arboriculture industry. Rather than simply confirming that employers found arborists difficult to recruit, the research examined the occupational, organisational and labour-market conditions that could cause the shortage to persist.

Industry Experience and Motivation

The research was partly motivated by personal experience working within the industry.

While operating a small arboricultural firm in Auckland, I repeatedly encountered the same constraint. Demand for work was strong, but finding experienced staff was consistently difficult.

Conversations with other arborists revealed a similar pattern. Businesses could often recruit entry-level workers, yet struggled to find individuals capable of climbing confidently, making technical decisions, and running jobs independently.

This raised a broader question. If demand for arboricultural services was relatively strong, why was the industry struggling to retain skilled workers?

How the Research Was Conducted

The study was exploratory and combined survey data with qualitative interviews. An online survey was distributed initially through the New Zealand Arboricultural Association and subsequently through other industry channels. It received responses from 31 industry participants. The survey examined what people considered the best and worst aspects of field arborist work, how the occupation could be improved and whether respondents were willing to participate in a follow-up interview.

The survey was followed by 11 semi-structured qualitative interviews. Participants included employed field arborists, an apprentice, a trainer, managers, business owners, contractors and a former arboriculture manager. Many had worked in more than one of these capacities during their careers.

After the initial evidence and relevant literature had been analysed, a further four confirmatory interviews were conducted with people involved at senior levels in the management of arboriculture firms and the wider industry. These interviews were used to test emerging explanations, identify weaknesses in the analysis and examine the practical relevance of the proposed responses.

The survey sample was not large enough to make precise estimates about the entire New Zealand arboriculture workforce. Its purpose was instead to identify recurring concerns, compare the relative importance of different job characteristics, locate interview participants and triangulate the qualitative evidence.

The resulting study therefore drew upon:

• 31 survey participants;

• 11 initial qualitative interviews; and

• 4 confirmatory interviews.

Arboriculture Is A Demanding Occupation

One of the clearest findings from the research is that arboriculture is a technically demanding and physically challenging occupation.

Climbing and dismantling trees requires constant judgement and adaptation. Each cut produces new information that influences the next decision. Arborists continually adjust their approach based on the behaviour of the tree, the effectiveness of rigging systems, the surrounding environment, and the actions of the crew on the ground.

Much of this knowledge is practical and experience-based. While training programmes provide important foundations, genuine proficiency typically develops only after several years of field experience.

The work is also inherently hazardous. Arboriculture involves chainsaws, heavy timber, working at height, and complex rigging systems. Safe operations depend on the continuous identification and management of hazards rather than the elimination of risk entirely.

These factors make arboriculture a demanding profession. However, while they influence labour supply, they do not fully explain why skill shortages persist.

The Structure Of The Industry

Another important factor identified in the research relates to the structure of the arboriculture industry itself.

The sector is characterised by a large number of relatively small firms. Many businesses consist of only a few employees, and competition for work can be intense. Residential clients in particular often request multiple quotes before choosing a contractor.

This competitive environment places pressure on pricing. When firms compete heavily on price, profit margins narrow and the ability to offer higher wages becomes limited.

The result is a market structure where competition between firms indirectly suppresses wage growth.

The Self-Employment Cycle

One of the most significant findings of the research concerns the role of self-employment.

Many experienced arborists eventually leave employment and establish their own small businesses. While some do so out of entrepreneurial ambition, interviews suggested that this decision is often influenced by dissatisfaction with wages or limited career progression.

When a skilled arborist starts a new business, the number of firms in the market increases. Additional competition then places further pressure on prices and profit margins.

This creates a self-reinforcing cycle.

Low wages or limited career progression encourage experienced workers to leave employment. They then set up new firms and enter the market, this intensifies competition, margins further erode, and this puts additional pressure on wages. The conditions that contributed to the shortage are therefore reproduced.

Skill Shortage Or Skill Mismatch

Another important distinction emerging from the research is the difference between a skill shortage and a skill mismatch.

A true skill shortage occurs when there are simply too few trained individuals available. A skill mismatch occurs when skilled individuals exist but are not working in roles that fully utilise their abilities.

Evidence from the interviews suggested that arboriculture contains elements of both.

Many businesses reported difficulty finding experienced arborists capable of operating independently. At the same time, highly skilled workers often spent a considerable portion of their day performing relatively low-skill tasks such as dragging brush or operating ground equipment.

This mismatch between skill levels and daily work tasks can reduce job satisfaction and weaken incentives to remain in employment.

Why Training Alone May Not Solve The Problem

Training initiatives are often proposed as a solution to skill shortages. While training is important, the research suggests it may not be sufficient on its own.

Training programmes typically produce entry-level workers, yet the industry’s greatest demand is for experienced arborists capable of leading crews or managing complex work independently.

Developing this level of expertise takes time, often several years of practical experience. Training new workers also requires experienced staff who can supervise and mentor them. When these individuals are already scarce, the industry’s capacity to train newcomers becomes constrained.

As a result, increasing the number of entry-level trainees does not automatically translate into a larger pool of highly skilled arborists.

Implications For The Industry

The findings of the research suggest that labour shortages in arboriculture arise from the interaction of several structural dynamics rather than a single cause.

These include:

• The technically demanding nature of the work

• Intense competition among small firms

• Limited wage growth

• High levels of self-employment

• Challenges in developing experienced workers

  
  

Together, these dynamics create an environment where skilled workers are difficult to attract and retain.

Understanding these mechanisms is an important step toward addressing the problem. Solutions may require not only improvements in training and recruitment, but also broader consideration of how the industry is structured and how value is generated within it.

Research Findings and Later Interpretation

It is important to distinguish between what participants directly reported and the explanations developed through the analysis.

The survey and interviews provided direct evidence about participants’ experiences of the occupation. These included the physical demands of field work, dissatisfaction with wages and hours, enjoyment of teamwork and technically challenging work, concerns about training, limited long-term career prospects and movement into self-employment.

The broader explanation of how these factors interacted was interpretive. The thesis used a retroductive research approach, comparing participant accounts with labour economics, employment-relations, vocational-training and occupational literature to identify plausible underlying mechanisms.

For example, participants described low wages, intense price competition, self-employment and the proliferation of small firms. The proposed self-reinforcing relationship between these factors was an analytical explanation built from the combined evidence; it was not a directly measured causal model.

The study was exploratory. It did not establish that one factor alone caused the shortage, quantify the effect of each mechanism or prove that the findings would apply identically to every arboriculture employer.

Since completing the thesis, I have continued developing the work through frontline experience, organisational observation and the practical examination of workforce systems. This later work considers issues such as trainee economics, skilled-time deployment, crew design, physical sustainability, management capacity and progression. These developments build upon the thesis but should not be presented as findings generated by the original 2021 dataset.

Conclusion

The shortage of skilled arborists in New Zealand is often framed as a simple labour supply issue. The research presented in this thesis suggests the situation is more complex.

Industry structure, competition between firms, and patterns of self-employment all play important roles in shaping labour market outcomes. When these forces interact, they create persistent challenges for businesses seeking to recruit and retain experienced staff.

Recognising these dynamics does not provide an immediate solution, but it does offer a clearer understanding of the forces shaping the arboriculture workforce. With this understanding, industry participants are better positioned to explore strategies that support both skilled workers and the long-term sustainability of the profession.

Author Note

This article summarises the key findings of a Master of Business Studies thesis completed at Massey University in 2021:

Skills Mismatches and Worker Shortages in the New Zealand Arboriculture Industry.

The study involved 31 survey participants, 11 initial qualitative interviews with arboriculture workers, employers and other industry participants, and four subsequent confirmatory interviews.

Read the complete thesis HERE. Findings from this research was presented at multiple National Arboriculture Conferences held by the New Zealand Arboricultural Association (NZArb)

A separate article, The Arborist Skill Shortage Is Not Just a Recruitment Problem, examines how this initial research has since developed into a wider analysis of workforce design and productive capacity inside arboriculture employers.