A new survey shows 287,000 Kiwis fear they will lose their jobs in the next 12 months.
Horizon Research's latest Employment Forecast Monitor was carried out in August, while Auckland was under alert level 3 lockdown and the rest of New Zealand was in alert level 2.
According to the survey, 53,900 Kiwis thought they would easily find another job while 233,700 felt it would be hard to find another.
The least confident were those in the accommodation sector, where only 11 percent of workers expected to keep their jobs, and sport and exercise workers - where just 15 percent thought they'd keep their jobs.
Fifty-five percent of those employed in tourism, previously New Zealand's biggest export earner, were confident keeping their jobs, while 61 percent of those working in hospitality (bars, night clubs and entertainment) expected to keep their jobs.
Those in specialist trades (plumbers, builders, electricians etc), as well as those in property or business services, were the most confident, with 100 percent expecting to keep their current jobs.
The August 2020 survey is from a poll of 1300 respondents. At a 95 percent confidence level, the maximum margin of error is ± 2.7 percent.
According to government figures, the unemployment rate is expected to fall to 6.3 percent in 2021, with 246,000 on jobseeker benefits, and back to 4.2 percent in 2022.
