SEEKING POSITIONS

Evening Star, Issue 19759, 9 January 1928, Page 4

SEEKING POSITIONS

THE PROBLEM OF THE BOY TOWN JOBS SCARCE [Special to the * Stae.’] ■ CHRISTCHURCH, January 7. Hundreds of boys and girls have leftthe Christchurch primary and secondary schools, and now are seeking positions. Unfortunately the supply of positions is a good deal below the demand, especially for boys. Girls have better chances of obtaining jobs, for there is always a market for girl labor, they have far more opportunity than boys of getting jobs nowadays as soon as they have left school. The trouble about the positions, however, is that they are just jobs, and prospects and wages are not great. In most of the manufacturing concerns there are always some jobs for girls at this time of the year. They can enter the dressmaking, biscuit and confectionery, printing and allied industries. In retail business, also, girls usually can pick up a job. The same applies to office positions. A girl who has had commercial training can find a position in the various offices round the city. As has been said, however, the job is merely a “job,” without great prospects. Boys, though, arc finding it hard to get positions (says to-night’s ‘Sun’). Employers are receiving many applications, but the applicants outnumber greatly the jobs. This is particularly noticeable in the trades, for there the Apprenticeship Act holds sway. In the retail trade there are the usual number of positions, which are soon filled. The same applies to the warehouses. Office positions arc lew and far between; tlie trades for tho most part have their quota of boys, and vacancies are very few indeed. Many boys wish to go in for tho building trades, but there are not many jobs for them. Engineering firms are taking on practically no boys at all, and motor garages are following the same procedure. Boot factories have very few positions offering. It is going io be hard for about three months for boys to find jobs, but by that time all should be absorbed; for many go back to secondary school, and many primary school boys make up their minds to, go on to secondary schools. From all indications the position in the towns as regards employment of hoys is going to become worse during tho next few years, for more and more boys will have been turned out of the schools educated, hut with no special aptitude for professional, commercial, or trade life. Their bent obviously is agriculture, but few of them will go out into the country. Tho time will arrive when they will have to do this in order io get a living.