Palmy ‘the lucky city’

• Author: Judith Lacy
• Published date: 08 April 2021
• Date: 08 April 2021
• Publication title: Guardian, The

In a case of third time lucky, Smith delivered his annual overview of the city to more than 100 people at a joint Rotary Club of Palmerston North and Manawatū Chamber of Commerce event last week.

“We’re very much the lucky city in many ways ... not only with our economy but in general city and regional settings.”

Despite the challenges of Covid-19, the city had handled things relatively positively.

“We are recovering amazing well, much better than anybody could have predicted and ... we are well placed for the future.”

The city’s diverse economy was probably stronger than it was pre-Covid.

In June 2020, Palmerston North had an estimated population of 90,400 but it supported 52,200 jobs as of February 2020.

“We do have jobs and there’s been a lot of online and social media inquiries too, about new residents, asking around what is here in the city, what are the city’s amenities alongside questions around commercial services and accessing general city services as well.”

The new resident trend was reflected in the employment statistics from the September quarter 2020, which show signs of continued employment momentum.

The number of jobs in the city was 3 per cent up on the September 2019 quarter (the New Zealand increase was 0.2 per cent).

Earnings from salaries and wages in the city were up 6.1 per cent (nationally 5.6 per cent).

Palmy’s average salary is $79,000. Tauranga’s $75,000, Dunedin is $78,000 and the national average is $53,000.

“I think that tells a really good story around Palmerston North. There’s good jobs there, there’s plenty of jobs and actually you get relatively well paid.”

While some jobs were lost last year, unemployment is still low in the city at 4.4 per cent.

Smith said there were plenty of reasons to feel optimistic about Palmy and why he calls it the lucky city.

“It is around our resilient people and our down-to-earth sort of attitude of just getting on with things. But it’s also through our diverse and multi-stranded economy.”

The city had the most class II soils around it of anywhere in New Zealand. It had a productive and flourishing primary sector as well as a growing agri-tech and food science sector. (Class II is very good land with slight limitations to arable use.)

Palmerston North is also New Zealand’s defence capital and centre of tertiary education and research excellence, plus the city is a national logistics and transport hub.

VisionReferring to the city’s vision of small city benefits, big city ambition, Smith said he...