Cadbury announced on Thursday a two-and-a-half-year programme to lay off about 145 of its 700 Dunedin staff, while at the same time investing $51 million in new high-tech, high-production machinery.
The recent slew of redundancies in Dunedin has been largely in the manufacturing sector, which has been hard hit by the strength and volatility of the New Zealand dollar, foreign competition and rising production costs.
Work and Income have drawn attention to a recent report from Southland identifying the province would require an extra 12,000 to 17,000 workers during the next five to seven years, not only in the dairy sector but across all industries.
Select Recruitment managing director Karen Bardwell said, while tempting jobs were becoming more difficult to find locally, the full-time job market remained "buoyant", as employers looked to retain permanent staff.
"If people are able to relocate, they should really give it some consideration as there are lucrative prospects down south," she said of Southland's employment opportunities.
Both the recent Fisher and Paykel Appliances' and Cadbury's redundancies were planned, allowing affected staff to be laid off in a staggered fashion.
Ms Bardwell said said for job-seekers it meant there was less competition for work when they were laid off. However, they should do what they could to undertake education or training which would bolster their CVs, she said.
Process workers and seasonal staff were most likely to be hardest hit during the next two years, as local businesses would only be able to absorb so many semiskilled staff, she said.
Dunedin-based Work and Income regional labour market manager Paul Casson said up to seven large companies around Dunedin had laid off about 1400 employees since Sealords closed in December 2006, with the loss of 80 jobs.
"Dunedin has been hard hit over recent years with job losses," he said when contacted yesterday.
There had been a "realignment" of working practices, which had led to redundancies, often following changes in technology and economic trends.
But while Otago employment figures "remained buoyant", Southland had a growing need for a wide variety of skilled staff, spread across several sectors, in coming years.
"People have to realise what job opportunities there are around the region and that they may have to leave the city," Mr Casson said.
When assisting with large redundancies, Work and Income now operated a "security and change group", which liaised directly with employers and employees when redundancies were announced.
The group looked at local job opportunities and how to offer assistance with education or training programmes for affected staff which would help with re-employment, he said.
The agency is running two employment expos around Dunedin in November and February, which would coincide with some redundancies, and they were expected to attract up to 70 employers, including 15 from the immediate Dunedin area.
"The southern region is bucking national trends in unemployment and the economy in general and there are opportunities out there," Mr Casson said.
