Latest figures show more jobless men

Press, 22 April 1986, Page 6

Latest figures show more jobless men

PA Wellington The proposition of men among the unemployed rose significantly last year, according to Labour Department figures. In December, 1984, men made up 60 per cent of registered unemployed. Last December this had risen to 65 per cent, the department said in the March issue of its Labour and Employment Gazette. The analysis excluded holiday job-seekers and married women. The gazette says the increase in the proportion of men was possibly because of a late start in the freezing works killing season. There had been also a rapid expansion in the level of female employment.

The analysis showed that people under 24 made up more than’ half the total registered unemployed. In both 1984 and 1985, almost a third of registered unemployed had been registered continuously for less than four weeks. Slightly more than a third had been registered for four to 13 weeks. The proportion of registered unemployed in the long-term category, over 26 weeks, had fallen from 16 to 12 per cent. The number of schoolleavers registered last December was 21 per cent less than December, 1984, totals. Schoolleavers registrations were the lowest since 1979. International Labour

Organisation figures show that women’s pay packets were well behind those of men in 1984. An 1.L.0. study showed that in non-agricultural activities, New Zealand women were paid 21.8 per cent less than men. The difference between male and female pay had been reduced from 26.2 per cent in 1975, the 1.L.0. said. The 1975-84 period included several years of the implementation of the Equal Pay Act, when separate pay rates for men and women had to be written out of awards. An I.L;O. study of manufacturing pay rates showed a gap between men and women in New Zealand of 28.6 per cent.