OFFICE WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 10

OFFICE WORK

SHORTAGE OF GIRLS

A DUNEDIN COMPLAINT

(By Telegraph) (Special to the -'Evening Post.") DUNEDIN, This Day. An unsatisfied demand for junior girls for office work is fast becoming an acute problem in local commercial circles. The shortage is put down to an insufficient number of girls training for office work. Large numbers enter commercial classes but too many leave before acquiring the necessary speed and skill, and for these partly-trained employees there are few vacancies left when their salaries rise to that of a second- or third-year office worker. It would appear that for the next six months at least there will be no surplus of young ladies seeking office work if their ages are such as to keep wages at a level employers are willing to pay for juniors.

Not alone in office work is there a shortage of girl labour. So acute is the shortage in some occupations that one largo employer is training boys to carry out work usually done by their sisters. As these boys grow older the employer intends drafting them to other work, and the experiment will be watched with interest.