Unemployment concern heeded

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 9

Unemployment concern heeded

The Government had no doubt that employment was the main concern of the public and was still likely to be at election time next '■ear, said the Under-Secre-..iry of Internal Affairs, Mr Thompson, at the week-end. Addressing a women’s seminar, he said he did not think that electoral or humanitarian demands would give the Government time to wait for the economic upturn to curb unemployment. “With the impact of the youth bulge in the workforce, the increasing number of married women working, the turnround in immigration, and the impact of new technology, many more work-force places are needed,” he said. “Our work-force is now at record levels, but registered unemployment is rising steadily also and last month was 74,390 or 5.6 per cent of the work-force.”

Because the impact of unemployment fell disproportionately on the young, the Government was giving priority to schemes to get young people into the workforce, he said. Mr Thompson said he was concerned about the amount of “mismatching” with young people in jobs as they took the first opportunity that came along for fear of missing a job altogether. “There is evidence that employers contribute to this mismatching by recruiting on the basis of academic criteria that are irrelevant to the job.

“For example, of 15 applicants for an assembly-line job the final selection is between the two with University Entrance. “There is little attempt to match abiiities with job requirements and this can lead not only to individual frustration but displacement of persons more suited,” he said.