H—ll

The position in some of the larger industries is now referred to : Engineering Industry. —The number of notified male vacancies has remained fairly being 282 (including 106 skilled men and 101 unskilled) at 31st March, 1947, and 287 (including 163 skilled workers) at 31st March, 1948. The greatest requirements are in general engineering, where 189 vacancies exist. There were also vacancies for 46 female workers, including 29 in general engineering. The number of workers required by Railway Workshops at 31st March, 1948, numbered 20, all unskilled. Building and Construction. —Again the number of vacancies recorded remains fairly stable, being 177 at 31st March, 1948, as compared with 186 at 31st March, 1947. Of these vacancies, 135 are for tradesmen. Farming. —No heavy demands were received for farm labour during the year. The peak waa reached in November, 1947, when 56 vacancies were notified, including 16 for sheep-farming, 5 for dairy-farming, and 35 for other types of farming. Freezing-works. —Freezing-works in the district were adequately staffed throughout the season and in February only 6 notified vacancies remained unsatisfied. Clothing and Footwear Manufacture. —Once again clothing-manufacture recorded the heaviest notified vacancies of any industry in the district, its requirement being 743 female workers and 52 males. The female vacancies included 590 skilled workers. Female notified vacancies at 31st March, 1947, totalled 886. Vacancies in footwear-manufacture were 177 at 31st Maroh, 1947, and rose slightly to 185 at 31st March, 1948, including 79 skilled workers. Male vacancies in theindustry numbered 39. Ashburton District The principal demands for labour in this district come from farming and seasonal industries, and only a limited number of workers are required by secondary and servicing industries. The number of notified male vacancies reached a peak in July, 1947, when it was 130. Under the influence of seasonal factors the number rose again to 122 in January, 1948 (as compared with 113 at 31st January* 1947), but eased off again to 81 by March, 1948. Woollen and knitting mills, shops and offices, hospitals, hotels, and catering establishments afford the main scope of employment for women workers in the district. Notified vacancies at 31st March, 1948, totalled 126, of whom 109 were required for the woollen-mills. Of the vacancies in woollen-mills, 40 were for skilled workers. Farming vacancies for males rose to 79 on 31st January, 1948, but fell again to 16 at 31st March, 1948. The peak number for the previous year was 65 at 31st January, 1947. At the peak of the season some 250 men were employed at the freezing-works, while the number of male notified vacancies for this industry was 8 in December, 1947,. and 9 in January, 1948. Timaru District The South Canterbury district is largely devoted to farming activities. These are predominantly agricultural, including wheat, flax, and seed growing, but sheep-farming is important in the back country. Many of the secondary industries in the district are closely related to farming, and include flour-milling, seed-cleaning, wool sorting and processing, manufacture of cereal foods, linen-flax processing, and meat-freezing. One milling firm operates a macaroni-factory, and during the year a factory has been established for the processing of fish-livers and the extraction of oils. Male vacancies at 31st March, 1948, were 136, as compared with 219 at 31st March, 1947, and were found mainly in farming, meat-freezing, and railways. No great difficulty was experienced by the freezing-works in obtaining labour, the number of vacancies reported at 31st January being 3 and at 28th February 13, as against some 680 workersthen employed in the industry. The main avenues of employment for female workers are servicing industries, woollen-mills, footwear, glove and clothing factories, biscuit-manufacture, and potteryworks. The number of vacancies notified at 31st March, 1948, was 89, as compared with 128 at 31st March, 1947. There were 30 vacancies for women in knitting and woollen mills and 10 in hotel and catering businesses.

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