Offshore Hiring in 2026: The State of the Industry in ANZ

How common is offshore hiring among Australian and New Zealand businesses in 2026?

Offshore hiring is now a mainstream operating model for Australian businesses and a fast-growing one in New Zealand. In ConnectOS's September 2026 State of Offshoring Report, 62% of 214 surveyed organisations already had offshore arrangements and a further 38% were considering them. Only 3% expected to reduce offshore headcount over the next 24 months.

Two caveats matter. The survey is vendor-run and covers only organisations already using or weighing offshoring, so it measures intent among the converted, not the whole economy. The direction is still unmistakable: 66% expect their offshore headcount to rise, 16% of them significantly. New Zealand shows the same pattern at the top end, where Deel and the Technology Investment Network found 47% of employees at the country's top 200 tech exporters were based abroad as of December 2024.

What is driving ANZ businesses to hire offshore in 2026?

Three pressures, in this order: skills shortages and wage inflation (cited by 39% of employers), compliance cost and risk (37%) and time to fill key roles (34%). The cost of not acting is concrete. Of the same employers, 33% reported reduced service quality because of hiring difficulties and 32% said they had lost customers.

A looser headline labour market has not fixed this. Australian unemployment reached 4.6% in August 2026 and job vacancies fell to 325,000, yet six in ten employers still waited 30 to 60 days to fill critical onshore roles, and the Australian tech workforce shrank 0.3% to 967,000 in 2025, its first fall in 12 years, against a need for 259,000 more by 2035. New Zealand unemployment hit 5.6% in the June 2026 quarter, the highest since 2015, with wages up just 2%, but specialist gaps persist and migrant sponsorship is dearer: government fees alone now exceed $3,150 per hire, and ICT visa approvals fell 67% to 729 in 2024.

Which roles and markets are growing fastest in offshore hiring?

Customer support remains the most common offshore function, used by about half of employers, but the growth is in harder work: IT and engineering, data and analytics, finance, cybersecurity and compliance, marketing, and HR. In the same survey, 34% said offshore roles had become more specialised and 21% said more strategic or knowledge-based.

The Philippines is the leading destination at 36% of employers, ahead of India (26%) and Eastern Europe (24%), and 56% expect South-East Asia to grow most. South Africa is the fast-rising alternative for roles that can run on shifted or asynchronous hours, since it sits 8 to 9 hours behind Sydney.

How deep is the talent supply in the Philippines and South Africa?

Deep, and still growing, though more slowly than the boom years. The Philippines' IT-BPM sector, tracked by IBPAP, exceeded US$40 billion in export revenue in 2025, up 5%, with employment up 4%. IBPAP's 2026 baseline is US$42 billion and about 1.97 million jobs. Its Roadmap 2028 preview sets a ceiling of US$50.5 billion and 2.14 million jobs, but also a slower scenario where revenue reaches US$43.3 billion while employment slips from 1.89 million to 1.85 million.

South Africa added 26,346 new international-market business services jobs in 2025, the highest annual total since 2018, with about 90% filled by young people. BPESA's target is 350,000 to 500,000 cumulative jobs by 2030.

Pear Tree charges the same rates for Filipino and South African hires, so the choice comes down to time-zone overlap and skill fit rather than price.

How much does offshore hiring save in 2026?

Between 64% and 73% over three years, once on-costs are counted honestly rather than just the salary line.

The local figures include superannuation or KiwiSaver, payroll tax (NSW), workers' compensation or ACC, desk space, software and first-year recruitment. The offshore figures include the professional's monthly rate, Pear Tree's flat $400 monthly management fee and software seats, and exclude the one-time placement fee, which is confirmed at the time of hire. New Zealand savings are lower than Australian ones because New Zealand has no payroll tax.

How is AI changing offshore hiring in 2026?

It is changing what offshore staff do, not whether businesses hire them. Two-thirds of surveyed employers already use AI tools, and 79% say their offshore teams adopt AI at the same pace or faster than onshore staff. The fastest-growing AI-related offshore roles are data analyst (47%), AI engineer (35%) and automation specialist (32%), and AI enablement is now the most-cited quality of a high-performing offshore partner, at about 50%.

The risk is concentrated in repetitive, transactional work, which is also where IBPAP's slower scenario shows employment under pressure. In our view, that favours named, individually vetted direct hires who can work alongside AI tools over pooled seats doing high-volume tasks.

What compliance rules shape offshore hiring in 2026?

More than they did three years ago, and most employers feel underprepared. Of surveyed organisations, 79% said offshore compliance expectations had risen, but only 25% were very confident in their own position and 29% were unsure which standards applied.

In Australia, the Closing Loopholes reforms (sections 15AA, 15AB and 357 of the Fair Work Act) make engagement structure a live enforcement issue, and Payday Super has applied from 1 July 2026. In New Zealand, the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026, in force since 21 February 2026, introduced a statutory gateway test for contractor status. Privacy law adds a second layer: Australian Privacy Principle 8 and section 16C, and New Zealand's information privacy principle 12, keep the business accountable for personal information it sends offshore. Documented access, VPN and two-factor authentication are the practical answer.

What should ANZ business owners expect over the next 12 months?

Continued growth, more specialised roles, tighter documentation and no return to the old local-only model. A softer labour market lowers wage pressure at the margins, but it does not create analysts, claims administrators or bookkeepers who are not there, and the compliance bar is only rising.

Pear Tree, with offices in Sydney, Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Cebu, Manila and Cape Town, has placed talent with 750+ Australian and New Zealand businesses on a direct-hire model: a one-time placement fee plus a flat $400 monthly management fee per hire. It screens 200 to 400 applicants per role, shortlists 3 to 5, onboards in 1 to 2 weeks, and backs every placement with a six-month replacement guarantee and a 90% retention rate against an industry average of around 60%.

For the role-level detail, see our guides on offshore recruitment trends and NZ visa costs.

About the author

Nick, Co-Founder of Pear Tree, leads sales, partnerships and business development. Pear Tree connects Australian and New Zealand businesses directly with vetted offshore professionals from the Philippines and South Africa, with no agency middleman.