SEEKING WORK

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 39, 15 August 1921, Page 7

SEEKING WORK

LABOUR DEPARTMENT'S FIGURES

There remained on the books of the Labour Department's employment bureau in Crhuznee-stfeet, at the' end of last we.ek,'the names of 271 applicants fit for heav'JT work; 'and 24 deemed to be able to do light work. Employment was found during the week for 46' applicants. Officials of the Department of Labour explain that- it is found that applications for work at the Labour bureau invariably include a number from men who, for, various reasons, are not capable of work such as the Department has to offer, or, in many- cases, of any kind of work at all—that is, they are "unemployables," It might 'safely be said that about ten per cent, of the applicants are. of this class. It is also found that a number of the applicants either refuse relief work or, after accepting, fail to report at the works. This class covers quite 25 per cent, of the appli-"" cants offered woa'k

Again, the number of applicants shown includes a proportion who have apparently obtained work elsewhere and. have failed to notify the Department. The proportion of men who fill in cards at the bureau and subsequently fail to report again is quite. 50 per cent. If applicants do not Keep in touch with the bureau they cannot (be allotted! work, and the Department's practice; is to regard as "dead" all applications from men who have not called for fourteen days. In the meantime, however, these applications largely increase the apparent number of applications for employment.

In the Wellington district office, any applicant who has been .ready and able to take up relief work with the Public Works Department has, as a general rule, been despatched to employment within a week of his application. A special effort is made to meet any necessitous case, and it is believed tha,t- in Wellington the bureau, has in cases of able-bodied men, been successful in meeting every case of real hardship that has come before it. A greater difficulty, of course, exists in the case of men who a.re fit for light work only, though every effort is made to suit such, cases.

The Department will be glad to hear from employers who have work of any kind to offer. Every effort is made to select suitable men.