UNSKILLED WORKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18192, 11 September 1922, Page 9

UNSKILLED WORKERS.

QUESTION OF EMPLOYMENT.

PROBLEM IN AUCKLAND.

There is a phase of unemployment in Auckland that perplexes tho organisers of relief work and temporary assistance. This is the difficulty of finding adequate employment for the unskilled worker and the unemployed man who is fit for light work only. The question has become a stubborn problem in Auckland. It has been exceptionally difficult throughout the winter. Since April the majority of unemployed men who daily have called at the principal bureau have been unskilled workers. The maximum total df unemployed was registered in mid-winter, when the" number was 420. No effort was spared in doing, everything possible to meet their needs, and the results were by no means meagre. The Department of Labour has placed 360 men in employment during the last six months, 225" being employed on relief and 135 placed with private employers. That has proved to be merely a palliative, assisting most frequently men capable of doing hard work in more or less rough conditions. It scarcely .touched the problem of completely unskilled and light workers. . Even now, when employment conditions are steadilv improving, there is still a bleak outlook for the unskilled man. Three hundred of tho class are at present out of work. Tho list of the uncmploved has been reduced by fully 30 per cent, during the past month, but there appears to be very little chance of placing men who are not in a position to assert with confidence that they can do this or that class of work. Many of the unemployed unskilled workers are down to the bedrock of distress. They have to accept charitable assistance in some form or other, but thev are anyAmg but the class that is content with chanty as the mean-' of subsistence. They want wo/k, and are willing to work. There i» no necessity to refer to "wasters. It is admitted that such glib talk does not really help at all. Officials state definitely that' the greater proportion of * the unskilled workers on tho obdurate list of unemployed consists of men who, above all things, want a job. It is a matter for economists. Olearly, there 41 no gaifr to a community in maintaining willing men,in idleness. If there is anv fault as to their lack of industrial skill the whole system of training possibly comes within the range of censure. The point to be considered is the fact that, several hundred able-bodied men are out of work, and that organisers of employment are unable by themselves to provide an adequate remedy. That is the position from the Labour point of view. It •is for some authority to'take essential action for the provision of work for the unemployed. Anyone who has had their experience knows that protracted idleness is an insidious thing. It grows till it becomes tolerable.