Jobs market virtually dried up—officer

Press, 19 November 1982, Page 6

Jobs market virtually dried up—officer

Unemployed people might have to stay on Governmentfunded work projects longer because the private job market had virtually dried up over the last few months, said the Christchurch City Council’s employment promotion officer, Mr G. N. Stevenson, yesterday. The average stay on special projects has been four months, but local bodies are able to extend their Project Employment Programme schemes to 12 months.

Mr Stevenson was seconded to his position two years ago, when he was approached to set up the special office and start building a team of employment co-ordinators.

He also continued his regular job as car-parking superintendent, and will leave the employment office soon to get the City Council ready to take over all kerbside parking enforcement — now done by the Ministry of Transport — from April. Mr Stevenson will, be in charge of the enforcement section of the parking division. Up to nine parking Officers could be employed by the City Council. . f The council’s former traffic division, including parking enforcement, was taken over by the Ministry in 1969.

Mr Gordon Bradley, an employment promotion coordinator, will take over the employment division. “Unemployment is always going to be a problem,” said Mr Stevenson. “We have to look for ways and means of making life more interesting for the unemployed.”

Worth-while training projects, including civil defence and bushcraft, were needed to get young people away from television or places where they did not have enough to do. Mr Stevenson said that development of the national marae in Pages Road had been “a tremendous project” in encouraging young gang members, for instance, to work side by side. “The gangs are being neutralised, there is no doubt about that,” he said. “A marae discipline has been established. They have levelled the site with wheelbarrows and shovels — it is an honour for them to have worked there. There is a large group of people on the marae whose social and ethnic needs are being looked after.”

Mr Stevenson said that there was a big potential in Canterbury for horticulture, and a new manufacturing potential under the Closer Economic Relations agreement with Australia.

There was a need for serious overseas marketing of horticultural products, and a wide variety of crops were being tested on the council’s herb farm.

“Horticulture is an ideal vehicle for teaching people good work habits. Learning how to cultivate the ground to grow your own vegetables is an obvious survival skill.”

Labour-intensive projects, such as horticulture, were important in a world where new technology was replacing jobs as businesses moved towards greater efficiency. “One of the most important things we have done is starting the small business advisory service,” said Mr Stevenson, who joined the City Council in 1975 after a 28-year career as an engineer officer in the New Zealand Army. For the last 18 months, the City Council has been concentrating on providing basic training in work habits for young people, to prepare them for jobs when they are available. Work Skills Development Programme trainees are given work credibility ratings. In spite of a further serious decline in the number of jobs, the council has been able to provide about 1600 jobs or training opportunities a year.