THE PLACEMENT SCHEME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23220, 18 June 1937, Page 8

THE PLACEMENT SCHEME

No disparagement of the State Placement Service,' or of what has been performed by it in securing jobs for unemployed men, is involved in the observation that somewhat large and indeed extravagant claims have been made in respect of the value and efficiency of its achievements. It is no doubt inevitable that the scheme presents itself in a much more favourable light on paper than is possible upon a practical estimate of its results. Records which have been published this week show that during the first ten months of the operation of the scheme 32,650 positions were found for persons in need of them. Unfortunately this does not mean, though it might be supposed to mean, that the figures relating to unemployment dropped to a corresponding extent during the same period. Actually they decreased by only 13,508, leaving a total of 34,526 unemployed on March 31 last. Figures published a few days ago indicated a drop of nearly 17.000 in the number of unemployed males in the Dominion for the twelve months ended on May 8, but the aggregate number remaining on full-time subsidised employment or on rationed work was 12,129, and the number on sustenance without work was 10,864. If the interpretation could be put on the'placement returns that positions wore found for 36,250 individual applicants in ten months the unemployment situation would be very much belter than it actually is. But there is no index of the extent to which the operations of the placement service resulted in permanent employment for those concerned. Apparently in a great many cases there must have been a placing of the same individual several times in temporary work in order to attain the results claimed for the scheme. In respect of ability of the unemployed to work, the Placement Office discovered that out of 26,218 enrolments only 2188 applicants were unemployable because of advanced age or impaired health. This number is only a small

proportion of the total number of persons for whom the State is providing sustenance and who are certainly not in all cases physically unfit to work. It might be of interest, therefore, to the taxpayers to know to what extent the assistance of the placement service is sought by able-bodied men who are in receipt of sustenance payments.