SCARCITY OF WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 217, 11 September 1923, Page 7

SCARCITY OF WORK.

MEN HARD TO PLACE. The influx of new arrivals under the immigration scheme with a guarantee of employment and housing accommodation is hardly likely to make the lot of the unemployed more easy. To get some idea of the amount of work available at present a "Star" reporter this morning interviewed several prominent heads of local trades unions. One and all agreed that the demand for workers, either skilled or otherwise, was almost nil. and this was particularly the case where the unskilled labourer was concerned. Daily men were applying to the secretaries for work, but in only one instance could a secretary spoken to to-day find employment, and this was for a blacksmith. At the Trades Hall there are representatives of 31 organisations, and from this it will be seen that either employers do not get into touch with the union secretaries or that there is no demand for labour at present, skilled or unskilled. One secretary stated that in the last twelve months lie has represented half-a-dozen unions, and he did not think he had placed a dozen men in work during that period.