\u201cOver the last year or so, they are seeing more people coming in who are saying they are in that category. They are looking for work but doing volunteering while that process is taking place.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs unemployment increases and the cost of living, times are tougher for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, she said community organisations supporting social services were busier and needed more helpers.<\/p>\n
McLachlan said depending on the organisation, they might want to do a police check, a reference check and an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some cases it can be a process to go through and not always, and that can take some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually the same barriers that a person might find in finding a job, can also apply to volunteering. It\u2019s not always an easy option.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SPCA has 120 op shops and animal rescue centres across the country in which volunteers worked.<\/p>\n
General manager of retail Cathy Crichton said about 1300 extra applications for volunteer roles were received – a 32% increase – from June to November 2025, compared to 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a nudge forward which is very exciting and we\u2019re very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it meant they were not accepting any more volunteers in some areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the applications are up it\u2019s a unique scenario. But at this point in time, in smaller locations, we\u2019ve actually got a hold in 19 locations in New Zealand where we are at capacity \u2013 and that\u2019s very rare and it\u2019s a very new trend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crichton said anyone seeking volunteer work should think creatively about what skills they can offer \u2013 it could be in administration or marketing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d love to welcome as many people as we could because the more hands on deck the more we can do and the more we can contribute to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said people were self-motivated to apply for volunteer work.<\/p>\n
The unemployment rate rose to 5.3% in the September quarter, meaning 160,000 people were jobless. The next quarterly figures are out in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a willingness to give back and contribute to the community. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnemployment being high really does encourage people to engage with the workforce and get experience,\u201d Crichton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really is about staying connected with the community and meeting others.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said more young people were seeking volunteer work experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to get work experience and a reference and there\u2019s an appeal there as an employer … I really do think it adds value to a CV.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stats NZ data showed that 53% of New Zealanders volunteered during March 2025 and of those, 27.6% volunteered through an organisation and 40.8% volunteered directly for another person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOver the last year or so, they are seeing more people coming in who are saying they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14105,4995,34040,1360,42,2959,43,3591,1118,61,40,38,41,39,664,7571,13971],"class_list":["post-204679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-applications","tag-away","tag-charities","tag-having","tag-headlines","tag-high","tag-news","tag-numbers","tag-of","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-turn","tag-volunteer","tag-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}