THE OUTLOOK FOR THE AVERAGE WORKER

Te Ao Hou, June 1959, Page 30

THE OUTLOOK FOR THE AVERAGE WORKER Auckland offers seasonal employment to thousands of semi-skilled and unskilled workers in freezing works, wool stores, tanneries and chemical plants. Employment is possible on earth moving contracts, in market gardens, on building jobs or in other outdoor enterprises for which the summer months are best suited. The peak months of full employment are from November to February and mid-March. It is easy to see what happens in the winter. For every job offering there are then the many seasonal workers whose summer contracts are over. In 1958, the welfare officers in the Maori Affairs Department in Auckland found jobs for well over 200 people who sought our assistance, and many, many times they had a most difficult task. On one occasion an officer took three young Maoris to a factory in answer to an advertisement and found that 117 others had been there before him. Another time 40 men had applied for a labourer's job before he got there at nine o'clock in the morning. These cases are quoted to illustrate the difficulty of finding employment during the off season, and must surely give us cause for serious thought.