EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21941, 1 May 1933, Page 17

EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRY

A STATISTICAL SUMMARY FIELDS FOR ENTERPRISE The latest available statistics relative to factory production in New Zealand show that for all industries the value of production amounts to £67,813,000. Out of this total we find that the purely manufacturing industries (exclusive of the semi-primary—meat freezing, butter and cheese making, ham and bacon curing, fellmongery, etc., gas and electric supply and electric tramways) account for approximately £31,000,000, or just under one-half of the total. When, however, we come to consider added value —the value added to the raw materials in the course of manufacture —we find that it is a far greater percentage, being 07 per cent, of the total, while the percentage of persons engaged in these purely manufacturing industries is 77 per cent, and the wages and salaries paid 71 per cent of the grand total. These figures emphasise the paramount importance of the secondary industries in our Dominion to-day and the . elationship they bear to our whole economic structure. They employ 53,000 workers drawing wages and salaries amounting to nearly £9,000,000. It should prove interesting and instructive just to give the actual figures for some of the more important industries: — Number of Wages Employees, paid. £

These and the other manufacturing industries, properly so-called, are an integral part of our very existence and their support and further development should exercise the minds of every patriotic New Zealander to-day. Fifty-three thousand employees and their dependents are looking to them for a livelihood today and the £9.000,000 placed in the hands of wage earners is no inconsiderable part of our national purchasing power. With the unemployment problem before us and showing no diminution in its magnitude as compared with the immediate past, it behoves us all to look to one remedial measure that lies in our own hands and which presents itself in the matter of employment in industry. To those already engaged in industry, it is perhaps scarcely necessary to ask them, whenever and wherever possible, to direct the purchasing power of their expenditure towards those requirements and necessities which are produced by their fellow-workers in New Zealand. To all others we ask that New Zealandmade goods bo given every reasonable preference so that the present employees might be retained in industry and additional ones engaged to cope with an increased production following upon a wider demand. It has been said that an extra 2s 6d per week spent on local products by each man, woman, and child in New Zealand would open the way for the employment in industry of an additional' 13,000 hands. This statement necessarily requires some qualification in respect to such matters as factories working below capacity and to short time being suffered by employees, but it is nevertheless a fact that the diversion of this or a greater amount of purchasing power per week can only have the effect of diminishing the ranks of the unemployed and filling up those gaps in the industrial army rendered vacant by the existing economic conditions. With the great diversity of the manufacturing industries in New Zealand there is consequently a wide variety of avenues open to employment should the necessary fillip be given to production by the purchase of more and more local goods, which cover a range wide enough to satisfy almost our every need. Superimposed upon the present unemployment difficulties we have another great problem confronting us in the matter of work for the boys and girls leaving school each year. The number is well over 20,000 per annum, and what a fine type of boyhood and girlhood they are! Their prospects on the employment market in the immediate future are deplorable to consider. The manufacturing industries cannot absorb their proportion of them until such time as there is a greater demand for their products. In the meantime, the bulk of these young people who do secure employment will find themselves in blind alley jobs where the prospects do not appear to open out into any promise for the future.

Men in employment to-day, those seeking employment to-day, and the boys of to-morrow are looking forward to security of employment and some guarantee that their positions as useful citizens will not be jeopardised by serious fluctuatitns in the demand for the products they produce. Each one of us can help, not only to increase that demand, but also to keep it constant at a higher level. More employment means a greater population, which in turn means a greater home market—or, conversely, a greater home market means more employment, which in turn will .tend to increase population.

There has existed (and still does to a lesser extent than formerly) a prejudice against locally-nmnufaeturcd goods. While this prejudice possibly had at one time a justification for its existence, the same cannot be said to-day when the manufacturer is abreast of the times with modern production methods and organisation, producing quality goods comparable to the best in the world. With prejudice more or less overcome, there still exists a certain amount of apathy on the part of the buying public, and it is the duty of every one of us to be less apathetic in regard to the origin and nature of our purchases, and to pause and think where we are directing our expenditure.

Clothing manufacturing 7155 784,668 Woollen milling 2216 300.300 Hosiery manufacture 7X1 86,305 Boot and shoe making .. .. 2183 335,415 Agricultural and dairy machinery 605 97.761 Grain milling ‘ 082 157.355 Biscuit and confectionery making 2523 315.664 Printing and publishing .. .. 7610 1.573,670 Tanneries 393 89,443 Chemical fertilisers. .. .. .. .. 643 103,990 Sheet-metal working 1220 200.150 Furniture and cabinet making .. 1770 285,049 Sawmilling and sash and door factories .. 4591 820,163