School-leavers face bleak prospects in hunt for jobs

Press, 8 November 1980, Page 1

School-leavers face bleak prospects in hunt for jobs

About 3000 Christchurch secondary pupils will leave school in December without a job to go to.

Figures released by the Labour Department show that the position is slightly worse than last year and significantly worse than in 1977. The department has at present 336 vacancies on its books, less than 15 per cent of which are deemed suitable for young people. School-leavers will have to compete with a long list of unemployed for these jobs. The figures may not accurately show the extent of the problem. A lot of school-leavers have arranged work subject to satisfactory examination passes; many may yet come under the Labour Department’s umbrella. Others may not even look •for work until the end of the summer vacation. According to the district .superintendent of the Labour Department (Mr W. T. Holland) the school- ,• leavers who registered with his department were often those who had not thought.much about a job, had tried to find work, but had found it more difficult than they had imagined. Many did not register until February or March, while a growing proportion returned to school, either for a higher education or a stronger base in their search for a job. In its efforts to find

work, the department has written to 200 employers. The letters were sent out on October 17 and there have been 10 replies, indicating 14 vacancies. The replies, however, are still, “drifting in.” The trends appearing this year are broadly similar to those of the last two years, only slightly worse. Most schools have reported that more pupils are leaving during the year, and many of these are taking the first available job rather than being selective.

Girls with fairly good qualifications and youngsters who have not had a lot of success at school are having the most difficulties in finding jobs according to Mr R. G. Thomson, a career? adviser seconded from the Labour Department to the Education Department.

The tendency for married women to stay longer in the work-force, was part of the explanation for the difficulties girls were having. In 1971 more-than--50,000 females in the New Zealand work-force were married women. This figure had risen to 56,000 in 1976 and was expected to have risen again by the 1981 census. The number of schoolleavers facing the job market had increased during the last few years as the effects of the “baby

boom,” in the early 1960 s were being felt, said Mr Thomson. Some people would argue that even in normal economic conditions the labour market could not have absorbed the increased numbers of school-leavers and that special provision, such as training programmes, would still have had to be made. ■

In 1979, 63,000 young people, including those who went on to tertiary education, left school, compared with 54,000 in 1975. It had been hoped that 1979 would see a peak in the number of school-leavers, said Mr Thomson. However, many pupils had been forced to return to school last year because of the economic climate and these would face the job market again this year.

School rolls in thirdform classes were beginning to decline and were expected to even out in the mid 1980 s. As many -as 24,000 school-leavers in New Zealand could be looking for jobs at the end of the year. Many of these would probably have to stay at school. Employment agencies say that there are about the same number of jobs available as last year, but that more people are looking for jobs and the competition is getting harder.