Māori employment advocacy group Tokona Te Raki wants to see big shifts in the Māori Workforce post COVID-19.

Its new report Whano Towards Futures that Work: How Māori can lead Aotearoa forward, done in collaboration with Waikato-Tainui, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and economic consultancy BERL, details the history of systemic bias that limited Māori into low-skill, labour intensive mahi.

Executive director Eruera Tarena says that makes them vulnerable to pandemics and other economic shocks.

But he says census data indicates the number of working Māori in Aotearoa has increased by 50 percent between 2013 and 2018, and some of that increase was in higher skilled, less vulnerable areas.

The trend needs to be encouraged.

"COVID's really opened the door to ki te ao marama, a better future, so if we can make the right choices and do the right actions, supported by government policies, then we can emerge from this stronger, smarter, better than before," Dr Tarena says.

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