BUOYANT TONE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 249, 18 September 1940, Page 6

BUOYANT TONE

EMPLOYMENT POSITION

CITY AND DISTRICT

Although several factors operate to confuse the position, the prospects of employment in and about Palmerston Norjjh are stated by authorities in close touch with the situation to be fairly buoyant. For general labourers to assist skilled tradesmen the avenues of employment are fairly open, but the placing of men on farms is reported to be restricted, largely on account of t'ho fact that single men seeking employment there —like the l houses available to accommodate married men —are very few. , ... For the general labourer the position in the Manawatu has remained fairly buoyant, although works such as extensions to the Waiouru military camp, to which several men have proceeded, are correctly regarded as being on y temporary in nature. Other jobs or a defence or Public Works nature have provided employment up to the present and in tho near future seasona work will absorb a certain number, in view of this seasonal work coming forward shortly, and also because o other considerations, scheme 4b (under which contract work in farm development was subsidised) has been suspended. One of the considerations was that men therein employed may be diverted to regular farm work. Skilled men in the trades, with reasonably good credentials, do not have long to wait for jobs, it was stated. This obtained in other centres also. Judging by the position of the Placement Office’s files, the ordinary commercial undertaking has not yet seriously felt the pinch of depleted staff owing to the draw-off tor war services.’Reduced business lias naturally had its repercussions in the staffing being necessarily smaller, and enlistments have brought about a satisfactory level. There are indications, however, that this natural finding of the level between business volume and staff numbers has about reached its limit, and that in the near future business houses and other firms may be seeking staff. The motor industry is' indicated as the calling which has been hit hardest by prevailing conditions. Here again, the trade is one in which many recruits for the services have been found and, particularly in the case of the Air Force and the general mechanisation of practically all forms of warfare, men with automotive training have been welcome.

FARM LABOUR."

Here and there preferences have been expressed to the Placement Office for men who, by reason of their family obligations, offer a certain continuity of service to the employer. There is no difficulty in placing men who have sougtit to join me military lorces and have been determined unfit by a medical. board.

Registers of men on the -unemployment benefit, scheme 13 and public works have been conned carefully for single men available for employment on farms, and there are very few, if any, single men available owing to enlistments for military service and otlier causes. There have been two schemes brought forward to assist farmers to place married men on farms; one, the loans advanced through county councils to farmers wishing to build houses for married men; and the other, the provision of cottages for married men, rented through the Public Works Department. These cottages, of several rooms and capable of housing a family, are provided as complement to the first scheme. Further, in order to get married men on to the farms as soon as possible, a subsidy of £1 a week is offered (in addition to the ordinary wages) to men who are prepared to leave their families for a period, tho understanding being that the farmer is prepared to build accommodation for the family. In the experience of the Placement Office-there are numerous married men on public works and other allied .employment who have had farm experience and who would be willing to workon a farm provided they could secure accommodation for themselves and their families, with their wives free to run their own houses. The number of married couples offering, where the wife undertakes household duties, is very much smaller. In many cases the men on city or public works undertakings have shown by their applications that they are genuinely keen to get back to the country.