MORE YOUTHS EMPLOYED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19133, 30 September 1936, Page 5

MORE YOUTHS EMPLOYED

DEPARTMENT'S REPORT LAST YEAR'S RECORD (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Recent legislation relating (o shops and offices gives increasing importance *o the figures in the Labour Department's annual report regarding the number employed m these occupations. The report states that the department has no accurate information, but it estimates that there are 27,672 shops in the Dominion, of which approximately onehalf are conducted without assistants. In shops with assistants there are 21.385 males and 20,113 females employed. The department's inspectors made 14,000 visits to inspect wages books, etc., ind instituted 314 prosecutions, securing 221 convictions with fines totalling £294. The number of boys under 16 years who commenced factory work last year is the highest since 1929, being 1026, wliile ijirls totalled 1964, making a grand total of 2990, the highest figure in the department's history. The apprenticeship position, which in the previous report was the subject of concernj showed an improvement, 1292 contracts being registered, while the number of apprentices is 3552, which compares badly with the 1928 total of 10,227. The report suggests that with an increase in confidence, employers will again be prepared to engage apprentices, hut the sharp decline in numbers during the depression and the consequent likelihood of a shortage of skilled tradesmen in the near future gives rise to serious consideration of the desirability of encouraging employers to give suitable training to persons who, by force of circumstances, were prevented from serving a period of apprenticeship.