Few Subsidised Jobs

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 1

Few Subsidised Jobs

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, April 18. The Dunedin City Council would be unable to provide work for large numbers of unemployed persons, even with a Government subsidy, unless money was made available for plant and materials, the Dunedin City Engineer (Mr G. K. Armstrong) said today. He was commenting on a statement by the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) yes-

terday that unemployment was too high at the moment, and that local bodies might be asked to provide jobs on a subsidised basis. Mr Armstrong said the Dunedin City Council had not had to provide work in similar circumstances since the depression, and the situation had' been complicated since then. The labour content of most jobs now was much smaller—usually only about 25 per cent of the contract costs—which meant that fewer people could be employed. “There are very few works which involve a very large labour content, and the only way we could employ people would probably be on clearing

noxious weeds, tidying reserves, and so on,” he said. The council would be able to absorb more workers if money was made available for plant and materials so that larger contracts could be carried out. A Labour Department official in Dunedin today said that unemployment figures had risen sharply since the beginning of March, when 180 were out of work in the city. By mid-March the figure was 207, and at the end of March it was 259. Last year’s peak unemployment figure in Dunedin was 394 in mid-December. This year it seems likely that the figure will be exceeded, probably as early as June.