WHY UNEMPLOYED

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 73, 28 March 1938, Page 9

WHY UNEMPLOYED

LABOUR'S PROBLEM.

MORE INTENSIVE RESEARCH. FACING A DIFFICULT TASK. ! While the depression is fast fading from our memories and is now tabu in business and commercial circles, one unpleasant remainder which worries the Governments of the world is the problem of unemployment, and, according to the official statistics published by the International Labour Office at Geneva, the only country which does not recognise the existence of such a problem is the Soviet Union.

The other 30 countries which furnii-h returns to Geneva range from Australia to Yugoslavia, and all show the difficulties of solving this problem and dissolving the residue left by the slump.

Australia appears to have faiyd as well as any from the peak year ot 193-2. when 120,454 were returned as involuntary idle workers, to September last, when only 42,145 were reported unemployed. Here in Xew Zealand the peak was reached a year later, in 1933. when 72.003 were registered as unemployed, while in September last 36,450 were returned (including those in full-time subsidised employment).

■Since September last the method of [calculating our unemployed has been changed drastically, as may l>e seen by comparing the December and January "Monthly Abstract of Statistics." In the December issue the total at September 25, 1037, is returned as 30.4.30. In the January issue, under the revised tabulation, the total for the same date is returned at 16.554, the difference being due to eliminating 11.397 registered unemployed then working on full-time subsidised jobs, and a further 5499 on sustenance without work were struck off to exclude those "totally tmfit for work." So that in the chancre-over of tabulation methods 19.890 were removed from the total of 30.450 recorded in the previous "Abstract of Statistics" for the same date (September 25, 1037). The Problem Persists. But the problem cannot be so simply solved by merely juggling with figures or changes of tabular methods, nor is a permanent solution likely to be found by drafting those fit for heavy ma-nual labour to local body works, with the Government paying a subsidy of £4 a week, while the local body adds the few shillings necessary to bring the weekly wage up to the award rates for fulltime local body labourers. The placement plan was a more constructive method of approach and has done good work in its practical and sympathetic assistance to the idle workers, finding out what jobs they were capable of filling and then making a constant and determined effort, to find situations for them. But the persistence of the problem is seen from the Geneva figures, I which show a total of 39.072 in December. 1936, and 37.316 in September. 1937.

Before. the placement plan was put into operation a comprehensive survey was made of every registered imem» ployed, man. It has been no fault of the placement scheme or its efficient officials that the main problem has persisted, and the Labour Government, which was so confident at the 193n election of cleaning up the unemployed problem in a few months, is naturally perturbed at its failure to find more than a SO per cent solution. With this year's general election looming on the horizon a new effort is to be made to get to closer grips with the problem, and a 7>ominion-wide inquiry is being started which it is hoped will dig deeper into the roots of the evil and perhaps disclose some new means of approach to the problem. A Searching Analysis.

Although the new inquiry will in Gome ways duplicate the work of the original placement research, it will be much more thorough and. searching in its nature than any previous one. An elaborate questionnaire has been printed, and special officials are being selected to conduct the interview and compile tlie reports. The first question deals with the home circumstances of the recipient, and covers his family; the material condition of the home; the tenure and rent pa id. The next question covers his physical condition, reporting on his ailments and physical disabilities, with the interviewing officer's comments, and from this a medical classification will be made. The third question concerns the per- \ sonality of the recipient, his peculiari- ,1 tics, disqualifications and habits, and ; this leads (o question four, which covers his interests in life and his liobhies. Question five deals with his abilities as a potential worker: his general intelligence and any special abilities which I may help him, or disabilities which handicap him. Question six inquires into his eduoational standard, primary. I secondary, professional, technical and , any trade training. The seventh and eighth questions go exhaustively into the occupational and | unemployment histories of the case. I Question nine inquires into the man's own opinion of bis needs and i this prospects, with a view to discovering, this ideas of directions where he might better his condition. The three concluding sections of the case history cover the interviewing officer's "over-all impressions,*' followed by the special unemployment committee's interpretation of the case, and concludes with a classification of the individual. Confidence and Goodwill. There will, perhaps, be some resentment at the outset, and there will be inevitable objections to what some tnav resent as inquisitorial methods. Much will depend on the tact and sympathetic approach of interviewing officers of a suitable type, and it will be for them to gain the confidence and goodwill of the men under examination. Tliey will need to make it clear that the research which is being made is solely in the interests of those suffering through forced tinemployment, and a genuine attempt to seek a solution of each individual case by any agency available, or by special measures to meet exceptional cases.

The Government is hopeful by this survey to be placed in a position to deal with the problem unit by unit, or group by group, instead of by a mass approach with '"blanket" methods in an attempt tn deal with large blocks of unemployed workers at a time. "Whether it will bring the problem any nearer permanent volution remains to lie seen after a ea;v:'ul study of the daUi collected by the inquiries.