P.E.P. goes but more on schemes

Press, 21 February 1986, Page 3

P.E.P. goes but more on schemes

While the Government is phasing out some of the employment schemes such as the Project Employment Programme, the number of people on fully subsidised schemes in Christchurch has risen rather than fallen.

At the end of January there were 1362 people on subsidised public-sector job schemes, compared with 1320 at the end of December. The number has fallen from the 1671 on such schemes in January last year. In the private sector, 1873 were on job schemes at the end of January, compared with 1872 at the end of December and 2679 in January, 1984.

The Government’s “New Deal” job-training programme is intended to

give unemployed people the chance to train for jobs and improve their ability to get jobs. The Government is concerned that there is a “mismatch” between the skills needed by employers when they advertise vacancies and the skills of the unemployed. In Christchurch there were 372 vacancies unfilled in January, and many more unfilled that were not notified to the department. The number registered as unemployed in the Christchurch district at the end of January was 7114 — 1013 fewer than in January last year. Among those registered as job seekers are 396 school-leavers. At the same time last year there were 489.