Unemployment linked with schooling

Press, 30 November 1978, Page 3

Unemployment linked with schooling

PA Hamilton Parents* and teachers’ fears that large numbers of uneducated children will become unemployed, have been backed by a special Labour Department survey.

The survey also warns of growing numbers of educated and tradespeople joining the unemployed.

The survey on the educational qualifications of the registered unemployed was made in April, this year. Its preliminary findings were released in the official “Labour and Employment Gazette” for September. It focussed on youth and education, and gathered a “fairly extensive” range of material on all aspects of the unemployed in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Greymouth, Blenheim, and Whangarei. The department’s concern about the high number of young, unqualified, or poorly educated becoming unemployed as employers become more able

to “pick and choose” In a recession, was the reason for the survey. The gazette says it is well known that unemployment in the 1970 s lies heavily on the young. “A high proportion of the unemployed are young, many of them women.

“These people tend to lack educational qualifications, having spent only a short time at school, and their search for work is hampered further by their lack of experience.' “They do stay unemployed for shorter periods than their older counterparts, and there are very many of them,” the gazette says.

In the transition from school to work, young people tend to leave jobs which they see as unsuitable. Their expectations about, and attitudes towards work are changing with rising levels of education and other social changes. “But the times when job exploration was a viable proposition for the young are passing,” the gazette says.