LABOUR NEEDED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22839, 21 September 1937, Page 11

LABOUR NEEDED

10,000 SKILLED MEN

MINISTER'S STATEMENT

GOVERNMENT UNDERTAKINGS

THE SHORTAGE OF ARTISANS

"Quito definitely the unemployed problem in Now Zealand has its back well broken and if we can get sufficient skilled men it will not be long before we have employment for every man capable of accepting it," said the act-ing-Minister of Labour and Employment, the Hon. P. C. Webb, last night. The Minister said the scheme of training young men from 18 to £5 years of age who had missed their opportunity during the depression was well under way and a considerable number of apprenticeships had already been registered. The Government would spare no efforts to have these young men trained.

"Wo are in need of more carpenters and builders," the Minister added. "In fact, tho work wo have planned out will require at least 10,000 additional tradesmen. We have dozens of big public buildings ready to be built if the labour can be found. There are contracts let for tho building of houses in over 40 towns, and in many instances the shortage of skilled men has impeded operations.

The Unemployment Problem "Unless we can get skilled tradesmen it will be very much more difficult to solvo tho unemployment problem," said the Minister. "Wo are anxious to avoid having a nation of navvies. In this mechanical age wo haVe to have the skilled men to play their part. Given a sufficient number of skilled artisans the unemployment problem will soon disappear and all that will be left of tho unemployed army will be those who are unemployable." Tho Minister added that in many parts of New Zealand at the present time thero were no unemployed who were able to work. It was only in the cities and the big towns that the problem was still in evidence. That was partly owing to the fact that the demand for the labour of young people in shops and factories resulted in parents moving their homes to the chief centres. Whereas nil the children in a family might be employed the parent, for whom the opportunities of labour were more limited, might be registered as unemployed.

Seasonal Workers . Another aspect was the largo number of seasonal workers who would soon be resuming work. In the past they had never registered as unemployed, but now a few weeks after their work terminated they were back on relief as unemployed. In the best of times there had always been this number of unemployed in the off season. Taking these workers into consideration, as well as the 10,000 who were unemployable or who were able to do light work only, there were very few left to be absorbed.

Tho Minister added that while they had been successful in providing for tho employment of 7000 men in the last two months on the rotation principle, a large number of local bodies, including the Auckland City Council, through financial reasons could not avail themselves of their full quota. He was confident, however, that the near future would see the situation altered.