LACK OF LABOUR PREDICTED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22376, 13 April 1938, Page 21 (Supplement)

LACK OF LABOUR PREDICTED

MINISTER DISCUSSES UNEMPLOYMENT

EFFECT OF SOCIAL SECURITY

' PROPOSALS

(press association telnqean.)

AUCKLAND, April 12,

“Even with the prospective Joss of considerable revenue from the Employment Promotion Fund, no difficulty is anticipated by the Government in its future efforts to deal with unemployment.” - This statement was made by the Minister for Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) in reply to a question as to how the Government’s social security proposals would react on the activities of the Labour Department in the promotion of employment. Mr Armstrong admitted that under the new proposals the employment' promotion tax would disappear, to be replaced by a wages tax for social security at an increased rate of Is in the pound instead of Bd. However, all responsibility for the payment of sustenance to men who were not fit for work would be removed from the Labour Department and handed over to the new Department of Social Security. The procedure at present, Mr Armstrong continued, was for the wages of workers in certain approved cases to be subsidised by the Government out of the Employment Promotion Fund. For the time being that policy would be maintained, but after the coming winter it was not expected that the same necessity for subsidised work would arise. “The Government will continue to meet the position fairly and squarely,” Mr Armstrong said, “and for the present the subsidies will be continued, However, in our opinion, the position is such that from next summer onward, far from having to look for jobs in order to give men employment, we will have to look for men to staff the various jobs. Everything points toward the possibility of a future shortage of labour.” The Minister mentioned that many more men would have been engaged in full-time employment already if it had not been for difficulty in obtaining supplies of construction materials from overseas. As that difficulty was overcome, there would be an increasing demand for workmen.

“There will always be a certain percentage of men who will be unfit for work," Mr Armstrong added, "and these men in future will be cared for under the Government’s social security proposals. That is a fair and just method of dealing with the position." .