If there were a piece of advice I’d give to anyone who might ever want it, it would be to always follow opportunity when it presents itself. Not doing so would be a real disservice to your life’s journey. You never know what may come of it … even if it’s simply something like making new friends and connections.

Humans have traversed the globe for hundreds of years in search of opportunity. It’s human nature to want more from life, a better life. And that’s arguably easier to pursue today than ever before.

My own story is a great example. As a fresh-faced 22-year-old with a journalism degree and an ambition to get into motoring media, one of the few contacts I had in the industry offered me a job “working on a trucking magazine” if I wanted it. I decided to give it a couple of years to see what happens. Almost nine years later, and by then the editor of that magazine, a chance email to New Zealand Trucking’s Dave McCoid presented another opportunity. Thinking I’d be mad to pass it up, I took a chance. If it didn’t work out, it would at least be an adventure in my life’s story.

Five-and-a-half years later, here I am writing this editorial …

Naturally, where you come from and what you have to offer influences these scenarios a lot. I understand the desire to follow opportunity elsewhere, as someone from a country that for the past two decades has suffered at the hands of a repugnant, corrupt government that has done nothing but create a flailing economy and employment environment that presents shockingly minimal opportunity for even qualified, skilled people.

New Zealand’s current 5.1% unemployment rate pales in comparison to South Africa’s shameful official number of 31.9% (the expanded unemployment rate, which includes those discouraged from seeking work, is 41.9%. I struggle to understand how this is not the official number, but then, I’m not a politician.)

And, through that lens, I struggle to understand the ‘exodus’ by Kiwis as currently portrayed in the media. We know 2024 saw fewer arrivals and record departures. Reports this week state that 18- to 30-year-olds are the majority of leavers. That makes perfect sense; that’s the time of life to make such moves. But this is clearly more than the traditional Kiwi OE.

We’re told they’re attracted by higher salaries and discouraged “by a view that New Zealand has gone backwards”, according to a quote in one of the reports. Far be it for me to tell anyone how to make up their mind, but oh, young Kiwis, you have no idea what “going backwards” looks like. It’s tough, sure, but it’s still better than many other times and places.

And it’s not like we didn’t know this downturn would come. Read any economics report post-pandemic, and all the signs and warnings were there. We were having too good a time in an artificially over-stimulated economy to care.

The really sad thing is the country needs all those who are leaving to dig in and do their part, and change that feeling of going backwards to one of moving forwards. It can be done. Yes, with factors such as a comparatively small population, there are many ways New Zealand can’t compete with larger economies. But, as a nation, it’s also known for punching above its weight. That’s where the real opportunity should be, and we shouldn’t lose sight of it.

Take care out there,

Gavin Myers
Editor