THE PROBLEM OF IDLE YOUTH

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 217, 11 June 1935, Page 8

THE PROBLEM OF IDLE YOUTH

Thus far, nothing has been reported from Geneva concerning the deliberations of the International Labour Conference, which assembled on June 4, on the third item of the agenda, “Unemployment among Young Persons.” In accordance with previous arrangements a report and draft recommendations were prepared by the. International Labour Office in order to short-cut preliminary discussion and enable the conference to come to a final decision on the question whether the recommendations in the report should be made the basis of a draft convention for consideration by the various Governments. This report is a most exhaustive survey of a problem which is universal in its incidence. We were told the other day that so far as juvenile unemployment in Wellington is concerned, it had ceased to exist, as the demand had overtaken the former surplus of supply. The report, however, shows that the .question of unemployment among young persons is far more comprehensive in scope, and much more complicated, than finding jobs for idle boys. . It involves such topics as the minimum school-leaving age and the. minimum age of admission to employment; the development of technical education; vocational guidance; the question of what constitutes “suitable employment” as contrasted with “blind-alley” jobs; recreational and social services for young unemployed, and so on. *, The question of “suitable employment” was very thoroughly investigated. Young people of a certain age, the youngest age group within the terms of the problem, in fact, find it less difficult to obtain employment than those of the older groups, which range up to the early twenties. But in a large number of cases the class of . employment .that most readily absorbs them- covers only the period in which their services can be most profitably used. The tendency in most cases is for employers to discard these young people when they reach a certain age and can rightfully claim higher rates of remuneration, and to employ younger workers. The report, therefore, insists that society through its Governments has a moral responsibility in regard to the lifework of our young people, and that legislation designed to deal with the question of the employment of youth should accept, this as a responsibility to be shouldered by the State, the trade unions, and private organisations. Broadly speaking, it is not so much a question of making provision against unemployment, but of providing right employment. This,, it is contended, can be achieved through a stricter oversight of juvenile employment; the planning of education systems which will lead logically and naturally to vocational guidance and instruction; the provision of centres for promoting the general and vocational education of youthful unemployed, accompanied by the useful and agreeable utilisation of their spare time in supervised recreation, physical training, and access to reading-rooms. Much of this may appear to the average person as somewhat Utop’an and impracticable, and likely to prove more costly than results might justify. It should be noted, however, that most, if not all, of these measures are incorporated in the latest British Unemployment Act and regulations. The worldwide problem of unemployment has compelled sociologists, economists, and governments to consider the employment of human beings as something more than a means to an existence; that it has social implications the ramifications of which are only beginning to be realised,