Unemployment ‘gross waste’ of labour

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32838, 11 February 1972, Page 2

Unemployment ‘gross waste’ of labour

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 10. The Federation of Labour has expressed grave concc about the level of unemployment. At present the number unemployed registered with the Labour Department is 5579.

Since 1967 the policies pursued by the Government had maintained unemploymen at a level unknown since the depression days, the national executive of the F.O.L. said in a statement today.

In present circumstances this was in excusable and an indictment of the Government’s failure to stimulate economic growth and maintain full employment. Policies put into effect in

1967 in a crash programme instituted by the Minister of Finance had produced unemployment throughout 1968 at an average level of 6881. “The excuse then was that we were suffering a recession and unemployment was inevitable,” the F.O.L. executive said. "Today we are in a favourable export position,

with substantial overs funds, and our domestic ec nomy is said to be sound. Despite this, unemployment had risen from 1673 in April of last year to the present 5570, and this did not include some 8000 school leavers who had gone back to school because there were no jobs. “Unemployment on this scale is a gross waste of the most precious of our resources, to the tune of 27 million man-hours a year,” the F.O.L. executive said. “Against this figure, the time lost in industrial stoppages is quite insignificant.” The executive said the Government’s policy deliberately contemplated unemployment to this extent. It had been going on for four or five years and the Government appeared to be quite unconcerned about the deteriorating position. The executive called attention to the need to implement policies which would hasten economic growth and at the same time provide employment for all those who were willing and able to work.