STATE PLACEMENT SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 7

STATE PLACEMENT SERVICE

10 nit cimoß Sir,—The recently bom State placement service represents an undoubted asset to all employers, but what of those whom the service was designed to help? More especially has the unfortunate plight of single men been accentuated as contrasted with the married man's lot under Labour's regime The single man may get £1 a week for compulsory idle periods, as against 10s under an earlier Government, but he cannot obtain work any more readily. In one isolated case in the writer's own experience it was imperative,; in response to working friends' inquiries, to visit the placement office and enrol there. After the first interview, when all varied employments had been registered, these having been many and diversified in depression years, this applicant reported regularly for not less than six months without being offered more than one impossible job. I say " impossible" because the employers were a Government representative house, not governed by any award, and I was offered 25s a week for 12 working hours daily during a seven-day week. Forty-hour week and the basic wage! As I was unused to a houseman's work and was 32 years of age this job was declined. To generalise, hundreds of voung men are still thoughtful and keen enough to present themselves at the various placement office counters to what purpose? Figures can be very convincing in our newspapers from time to time, but what do the affected workers think of the parade of achievement?—l am, etc.. Still Out.