LABOUR MARKET
WHAT THE DEPARTMENT HAS ACCOMPLISHED WORK FOUND FOR 3890 LAST YEAR PAST ACTIVITIES REVIEWED Tho New Zealand Official Year Book for 1926 contains an interesting table showing tho numbers of unemployed assisted to employment from year to year by the Labour Department. The returns, which are for the year ending on March 31, are as folow: 1892 2 > 593 1893 3.874 1594 3,371 1895 3,0301896 2,8/1 1897 K/18 1898 2,03 a 1899 2,115 1900 2,147 1901 3,121 1902 1,830 1503 3,704 1901 2,860 1905 3,130 1906 J?,/12 1907 ‘.-93 1908 6,30 a 1909 10.391 1910 8,506 1911 ‘.l’ 2 1913 ®’ /-a 1913 9.84 S 1914 3,615 1915 ’.ala lain 5.9/8 1917 2,966 1919 iqoa ... 4,205 1921 ’.’.‘L..... 3,361 1079 4,989 1993 3,987 1904 3,877 1925 L.. 3,890 The total number of men tor whom employment has ibeen found by the Department up to March 31, 1925, is 148,961 (states the Yt-ai' Book), and the dependents of these number 181,03/. Of tho number assisted, private employment was found for 70,413, while the remaining 78,548 went to works ot various kinds for the general Government. , , Reasons for Fluctuations. The fluctuations revealed by the figures, it is stated, seem to be closely bound up with the success of tho local harvest (tho grain crops wore relatively much more important factors in the total economy of New Zealand twenty years ago than they are to-day);, with the prices realised by New Zealand’s export produce in tho world’s markets; with the loan funds available for the construction of public works; and with the volume of male immigration. Thus the high unemployment figures of 1893-91 corresponded with the worldwide depression then prevailing; and with a consequent fall in the prices realised by New Zealand’s export product, notablv kauri gum; resulting local bank failures, causing widespread difficulties in commercial and industrial circles; the stoppage of the Midland Railway works; also with a wave of immigration from Australia, where industrial conditions were apparently even more acute. ~ . « From about 1894 the world prices of New Zealand’s principal exports began to rise, while already for some years the commercial success of refrigeration bad been enabling a considerable export trade in frozen meat and dairy produce to bo built up. s ßy 1896 tho unemployment situation was greatly relieved, and tho previously familiar countryside spectacle of "Swaggers had almost censed for the time being to exist.. Tho North Island gold boom of 1897 further helped matters, though with its collapse in tho following year something in the nature of a setback occurred. Booms and Slumps.
The high figures for 1900 may have been partly due to dislocations brought about by the Boer War; it is probablj, however, largely fictitious, tho year 1900-1 having been one of greatly increased activity in connection with the prosecution of the North Island Main Trunk, tho Otago Central, the Midland, the Cheviot the Kawakawa, the Stratford Inland, and other railways, and persons seeking employment in such works as artisans and labourers were obliged to register with tho Labour Department. The increased figures after 1902 may be ascribed to a collapse or the dredging boom in Otago, with its consequent adverse reactions on the Dunedin engineering trades; to a wave of immigration following droughts in Australia m 1903 and 1901, and to further similar waves in 1906, and 1908. rhe high figures foi* 1909 are also , partly a reflex of the Wall Street panic in 1907, and the consequent shortage of purchasing power in the hands of New Zealand customers to a serious fall in the demand for pliormium fibre; and to tho throwing out of employment of many labourers and artisans on the completion in 1908 of the North Island Main Trunk railway. The great improvement in the unem ployinent situation betwen IS9I-92 and 1901-5 is reflected by the fact that the average duration in months of unemployment fell from 2.4 in 1891-92 to 1.8 in 1893-94. By 1895-96 it had temporarily risen to 2.0, but it fell again, at first rapidly and then more slowly, to 1.3 in 1900-1 and 1901-2. Tn 1902-3 it was 1.4; in 1903-4, 0.8'; and in 1904-5, 0.7. Effect of Great War. On tho outbreak of the Great Mar, many firms adapted a policy of rigorous retrenchment, with tho result that applications for employment increased rapidly till a maximum was attained in September, 1914. The position was relieved by the establishment of relief works of'a public character in tho chief and secondary centres of population, mainly by the municipal authorities. After September the position quickly improved, as a result of an increased seasonal demand for labour; through the removal of much labour-power to noneconomic spheres, viz., to military service; through war-begotten demands for increased supplies of clothing, boots, saddlery, and tho like; through a considerably augmented demand for labour in connection with the fitting-out of troopships, etc. Tn December, 1920, there was still a shortage of labour; but after that’ date over-importation and consequent financial stringency were responsible for a serious slump. The position was most acute during the week ended Juno 24, 1922, at the end of which time no fewer than 1825 unfilled applications still remaining on the books of the Labour Department. The position was relieved by the provision of employment on public works of secondary importance, which otherwise, in accordance with the post-war policy of ‘'concentration” in public works construction, would have been obliged to wait their turn for a few years—especially on railway works.
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 88, 8 January 1926, Page 10
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911LABOUR MARKET Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 88, 8 January 1926, Page 10
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