A sociologist says migration loss is a concern.
Stats NZ data shows in September there was an estimated migration gain of 2,176 people.
But for the year ending September, there's still a provisional net migration loss of 8,400.
Sociologist Paul Spoonley says there's been an uptick in immigrants, but it's a long way to reach pre-Covid levels.
He says we've tended to operate a brain exchange where the loss is made up by skilled migrants coming here - but at the moment there's not quite that balance.
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