Unemployed down 531 in Christchurch

Press, 4 November 1978, Page 3

Unemployed down 531 in Christchurch

The number of registered unemployed in the Christchurch district has fallen 531. since the end of September.: The figure at the end of October was 3488, nearly 1000 below the peak recorded at the end of July. The national figure on • October 13 was 49,321 registered as unemployed or on special work. This was a de- : crease of 422 on the number i recorded on September 29. The figure on October 27 was registered unem- • ployed at 21 of the 22 Labour • Department employment dis- i tricts—a decrease of 1447 on | the figure for the same 21 districts on October 13. I No information was avail- i [ able for the Wellington em-l .ployment office, which has • been affected by a dispute. In the fortnight to October: • 27, employers notified 287 vacancies in Christchurch, compared with 190 the previous fortnight. Of the vacancies, two-thirds were for un- ; skilled or semi-skilled workers. , • The district superintendent i of the department (Mr W. T. Holland) said that the employment and vocational guidance services in Christ- I church placed 731 unem- 1 ployed persons: 364 in the I private sector and 367 in the ! public and local authority < sector under temporary em-|< ployment programmes. I <

The number employed on ; temporary programmes in i the private and public sectors in Christchurch is 2262, and 1034 are employed under the Government’s private subsidy schemes. The combined total of rc-, gistered unemployed and those on temporary or subsidised work in Christchurch is now 6784, compared with a peak 6875 at the end of July. Mr Holland said that stud-; ents who registered with the department under the com-| tnunity service programme! which began this week would' be included in the depart-! ' ment’s figures. Registration I i forms had been sent to the * I University of Canterbury but! 'most students were not ex-1 pected to be available for! work for several weeks. Other centres to show decreases in registered unemployed at the end of October were Palmerston North (372) and Auckland (264). Included nationally in the numbers registered as seeking work at October 27 were 1929 school-leavers. Registered unemployed in the circulation area of “The! Press” at October 27, with! figures for October 13 in parenthesis, were: Blenheim 225 (323): Nelson 411 (444); Greymouth 152 (138); Christchurch 3488 (3684); Timaru 393 (414).