MEN ON PUBLIC WORKS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23053, 22 June 1940, Page 10

MEN ON PUBLIC WORKS

♦ STEADY DECLINE IN NUMBERS FIGURE NOW WELL BELOW 20,000 The steady decline in the number of men engaged on State undertakings for the Public Works Department is shown in the latest issue of the Abstract of Statistics. The latest figures available are those for May of this year and show that at the end of May there were 18,811 Public Works Department employees (all men on undertakings directed by the Public Works Department). In\April of last year, there were 22,426 men with the department and in April, 1938, 21,344. Of the total men engaged in April, 9125 were on roads (643 in the Christchurch district and 993 in the Greymouth district); 1613 were on hydroelectric works and 8073 on other works, including land improvement, irrigation. public buildings, aerodromes, railways, and other works. Of that total of 8073, the men engaged on railway construction numbered 2054 and on irrigation, 934. Between March and April the number of men emoloyed on public works declined by 792 and, in fact,, the figures have fallen more or less substantially each month since March. 1939. The decline during April of this year in the number of employees on public works, compared with the figure for April, 1939, works out at 16.1 per cent.