An inaugural report on return migration under New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme has found more than half of the participants are returning workers.
In the scheme's four seasons to date there have been nearly 25,000 placements involving just under 14,000 individual workers.
Three quarters of those people are from the Pacific and the research found that employers rate their Pasifica workers more highly than all other employee groups.
The head of research at New Zealand's Department of Labour, Vasantha Krishnan, says more of the workers are earning above the minimum wage.
"And partly that reflects the earnings of return workers, who have the skills and productivity to be able to earn above the minimum wage and that's being recognised so that's a positive outcome."
Vasantha Krishnan says just under half of employers say they'd like to recruit the same group of workers for next season and reflects a desire for a mixture of both experienced and new workers.
