H—ll

Invercargill District While little change is evident in the position regarding skilled male workers, the demand for unskilled labour has eased over the past year. The fall in male notified vacancies from 339 (62 skilled, 188 unskilled, and 89 juveniles) at the 31st March, 1948, to 276 (60 skilled, 149 unskilled, and 67 juveniles) at the 31st March, 1949, was confined to unskilled adults and juveniles. The shortage of skilled labour is acute in the engineering and building trades. At the 15th October, 1948, 1,261 males were engaged in the extractive Industrie?. The principal change in employment levels in this group occurred in bush sawmilling which rose from 452 at the 15th October, 1947, to 526 at the 15th October, 1948. Notified vacancies for females fell from 82 at 31st March, 1948, to 64 at 31st March, 1949. This decline occurred mainly in juvenile vacancies which fell from 30 to 6 over the period. Only 3 cases of unemployment among males occurred, 1 in April and 2 in July. In the previous year the incidence of unemployment was substantially higher, and in July, 1947, 9 males had been registered.

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