EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES

Northern Advocate, 10 December 1937, Page 4

EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES

In the course of his report to ! the annual meeting of the Bank of New South Wales, the chairman of directors made interesting i reference to the question of employment and wages as affecting New Zealand. Further evidence of the Government’s concern about the seriousness of the unemployment problem, he said, is to be found in the extraordinarily large public works programme which it considers necessary to i ease the position. Present unemployment,. however, may not he of the cyclical type for which public works are the proper corrective, hut is possibly of a structural character and of uncertain duration. The Government. lias sought to secure a 40hour week throughout industry, and has at the same time raised wages. Nominal wage rates during June 1937 were 15 per eent.j above those of the previous June, all groups receiving increases. Those changes in the conditions under which industry j operates necessitate considerable] reorganisation of productive] methods, and it may he that when] reorganisation is complete if wild he found that the relative im-l portancc of labour in the productive process has declined. Tinas,j says the chairman in conclusion, until industry adjusts itself to] the 40-honr week and to higher wages it is impossible to say what level of unemployment may he expected under the new conditions. But adjustment cannot he completed while a constant state of uncertainty prevails.