Govt strategy for jobs

Press, 28 April 1981, Page 6

Govt strategy for jobs

Long-term Government strategy would be able to promote the necessary growth to provide jobs for all who needed them in the next decade, said the Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger) in Christchurch last evening. Mr Bolger, who was addressing a well-attended meeting at Ham at the opening of the election campaign for the National candidate for yaldhurst, Mrs Margaret Murray, said that the. Government faced a formidable task in the next 10 years over unemployment.

Added to the number of people already unemployed or on Government relief job schemes, there would be the many thousands of. schoolleavers each year seeking work. Over the next decade these two groups would add up to about 400,000 people needing jobs, Mr Bolger said. “I believe that we have the capacity to create the 400,000 or more jobs that will be needed in the next 10 years.” Such jobs would mainly come from agriculture, manufacturing, and the additional economic growth provided by big development programmes such as energy, aluminium smelters, steel, and pulp and paper mills, Mr Bolger said.: .

Under the Government's job creation programme announced in the mini-Budget last November 900 permanent placements had been made so far. The introduction of a 35hour working week would do nothing to reduce unemployment or to help those 400,000 people find a job in the next decade. “A 35-hour working week would do more to damage

businesses and other employment agencies than any other move. "It will increase, the cost of labour. And employers will be encouraged to see if they can replace labour with new technology, thereby reducing the number of jobs available,” he said. The cost of finding those 400,000 people a job should not be increased in the next 10 years by the introduction of a 35-hour week.