EMPLOYMENT

Franklin Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 66, 21 June 1937, Page 8 (Supplement)

EMPLOYMENT

STATE PLACEMENT SERVICE. FIRST YEAR’S ACHIEVEMENTS. The records of the State placement service for its first year of existence demonstrate that very substantial work has been done towards the solution of the unemployment problem along moic permanent lines than the distribution of sustenance pay and relief work. At the end of March the new branch of the Labour Department had been in existence for ten months. Some of this time must have been spent in preliminary organisation, for it oust have taken many months to reach its present stage of having 25 of its own offices, and a carefully selected staff of 120 employees specialising in Ihe task of finding the right men for jobs, and discovering all possible opportunities in that direction. Yet the ten months ended with a creditable record of 32.650 positions found, which meant that for every week of Ihe ten months 753 men had been placed in positions. These figures represent a genuine

improvement in the employment position from the taxpayer’s viewpoint, for they exclude 0292 positions which (lie placement service found for men who went In State or subsidised operations. Not a Relief Organisation. Relief workers naturally enrol with this service in the hope of getting more permanent work, but the scope of the new organisation is intended to he so wide as to cover all persons who want work, and rauder service to all employers who are looking for the most suitable men. not necessarily in their own immediate locality. The employment position. through Ibis agency, is viewed nationally, and the whole outlook is revised every week on the national scale, for every one of the 23 placement offices which are well distributed through the Domin-

ion has a duty to report to the central office in Wellington every Saturday morning all the classes of men on its hooks who want employment. These facts are collated into a -statement covering every locality served by the placement offices, and every Monday morning this national survey goes out to the district offices. Thus it is possible for an officer in the South vainly searching his own books for men of a particular occupation, to discover that in another locality there are men wanting this work for which they have been trained. If necessary, the placement service advances the money for their transport. Is Work Refused? Out of the thousands of iol.s offered by the service in ten months, how many have been refused? This question can be answered from headquarters, which gave an assurance that only a hundred men declined the proffered employment, thus discounting a rather prevalent impression that a large percentage of relief workers prefer dependence on the employment promotion fund to .taking normal employment at the current rates. Another important point which interests all concerned in the employment problem, is that of the proportion of “unemployables.”- The completely hopeless cases are unlhcfiy to keep in touch with the service, but there are many partially disabled men who hope for suitable positions and take advantage of the exceptional knowledge of the placement officers regarding industrial occupations, a knowledge constantly enlarged through the co-operation of employers who are being asked to think out special tasks for this deserving class. When the first year’s work ended, enrolments totalled 26,218, and the classification of these job-seeking men which, is only made after the most careful personal assessment by a placement officer, is as follows : Industrially fit 19,563 Fit for light work .... 4,467 Unemployable ........ 2,188 The final designation is not exactly accurate, for the placement officers hope that their efforts to find special classes of employment will result in some of the balance of 2188 men getting a chance for doing useful though possibly small tasks. Generally this final category is made up of men considered -unacceptable lo employers because of advanced age or impaired health or faculties. One of the most recent conclusions readied by the placement service is that of the partially disabled men on its books (those who have lost the use of a limb) only' 7 per cent are unfit for industry.

Variety of Employment.

No fewer than 385 different classes of jobs are classified in the long detailed list of placements for the ten months. Quite a good proportion show positions permanently filled, though the larger figures relate to more or less casual employment, which, however, provides the opening for the better opportunity. The list cannot he quoted fully, for it is too long, therefore some of the more interesting entries must suffice. Occupations filled include: —Bakers, 133; barmen, 120; box-makers, 414; hushmen. 331; carpenters (general), 1877; carpenters (hush camp), 81; clerks, 499: motor drivers (road), 784; freezing works employees, 530; gardeners (general), 714; gardeners (jobbing), 233: general labourers, 8699, of which 2621 went to permanent positions; farm labourers, 4 677 of which 3282 obtained permanent positions; gene-al mechanics 331: painters (brush hands) 483: decorators, 386: pape.* • hangers, 222: plumbers, 237; sales-

men. 343: sawmill hands, 271: scrub cutters. 215; shearers, 108: shepherds, 95: shop assistants, 424; slaughter-

men. 228: storemen. 656: waterside workers. 229: timber yardmen. 112.

The Personal Aspect. *

Talks witli executive officers of the new labour service showed the great importance they attach to the personal problem associated with every man who registers. All who have to do with the work-.seeker realise that each individual presents a special problem. A long round of personal applications for jobs, with no results, often reduces the idle worker to a feeling of hopelessness. If they seek the help oi the placement service, they get the advanlage of superior opportunities of quick rounds of enquiries possible through the handy telephone, to say nothing of the meployers who have recorded their desire for help of particular kind. Applicants arc given suggestions where to seek jobs, and the experience of Ihe service has been that many men who obtained temporary jobs through the office after dis-

couraging efforts of (heir own, displayed n marked increase in personal energy in job-seeking once they had been lifted mil of Ihe relief category, even by a casual job. Employers, it was ascertained, are increasing their praelical interest in ihe placement service because of a realisation that so much care is taken in selecting the most suitable men for pai'licular ,;obs, and the fact that a call for men is not going to result in a plea to benevolently give a position lo someone with a “hard luck” story. The service will pick a suitable man. otherwise its

valuable contact with the employer will at once he destroyed. That the

service has reached the hippy position of getting contacts without having to seek all of them seems to be proved by an official test made of the business on three telephone lines serving one of the principal placement offices. The Post and Telegraph Department found that in one day the tnree lines were insufficient to handle all the inward traffic: no fewer than. 122 “engaged?’ reports being recorded. The service index is not a record of relief workers, but contains a large proportion of unemployed who have not registered for relief, as well as boys leaving school who have not yet held positions, but hope to make a start in some useful occupation brought to their notice through this State agency, manned by competent men' with ,3 an enthusiasm for finding jobs for others.