H—ll

(3) The predominant industries for which certificates were issued are : textiles and clothing group, 929 ; engineering, including vehicle repair, 353; printing and bookbinding, 146 ; furniture-manufacture, 93 ; footwear-manufacture, 83. The high demand for juvenile labour in general continues to be unsatisfied. (?) Shops and Offices Act, 1921-22 (1) No registration of shops or offices is undertaken, as is the case with factories,, and it is only possible to estimate numbers by the assistance of the Department's Halfyearly Survey of Employment and the check given by inspections. The former, however,, now enables more accurate figures to be supplied than in the past. Estimates of the position at 31st March, 1949, are : Shops — Number of shops without assistants .. .. .. 11,009 Number of shops with assistants .. .. .. 15,502 Total number of shops .. .. .. 27,111 Number of assistants — Male .. .. .. .. 31,244 Female .. .. .. .. 30,519 61,763 Offices — Number of offices .. .. .. .. .. 8 ,062 Number of office assistantsMale .. .. .. .. 13,581 Female .. .. .. .. 14,471 28,052 (2) The largest number of shops and shop-assistants is in the Auckland district" (5,731 and 11,001 respectively), followed by Christchurch, AYellington, and Dunedin in that order, with the exception that Dunedin has more shops but fewer assistants than Wellington. Auckland also has the largest number of offices and office-assistants (2,033 and 6,718 respectively), followed very closely by Wellington (1,994 and 6,356 respectively), but there is a considerable drop to Christchurch and Dunedin, which together have less than two-thirds of Auckland or Wellington figures. Forty-seven per cent, of all office-assistants work in the Auckland and Wellington districts, compared with only 27 per cent, of shop-assistants, pointing to the greater concentration of office workers ia these areas. It is stressed that these are district (not city) figures, and include in each case, except Wellington, a number of small towns and boroughs. (3) Inspections for the year as compared with the last three years show increased activity : 1945-46. 1946-47. 1947-48. 1948-49. Shop inspections .. 9,569 13,431 9,274 15,160 Office inspections .. 901 1,697 ' 708 1,627 Requisitions served .. 95 79 151 299 The drop in inspections in 1947-48 was attributable mainly to staff difficultiesdiscussed elsewhere. (4) The Department authorizes the working of overtime in shops, and must also be notified of the intention to work overtime in hotels and restaurants. Overtime work in shops is limited by the Shops and Offices Act to certain types of work not being the sale of goods, such as stock-taking. Notifications were as follows-: — 1947-48. 1948-49. Number of hours overtime notified 74,174 78,347 Number of persons concerned —- Males .. .. .. 1,944\, 2,034\ . Females 2,703/ 4 ' 647 2,586/ 4 ' 620

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