AUSTRALIAN MANPOWER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 39, 11 January 1944, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN MANPOWER

WHITE-COLLAR WORKERS

-SWITCHED TO WAR PRODUCTION

A cable message from Canberra states that ''another 70,000 Australian white-collar workers must be '-switched to Avar work." They arc to be d I*4l wll l'rom commerce, finance and the wholesale and retail trades. It is only a matter of weeks since the Federal Minister of A\*ar Organisation of Industry announced that 219,000. men and women would be •required for war purposes, and 50,000 of these were to come from banks, 'financial houses, and i.isurancc offices. Jt was hoped to obtain tjie services of from 25,000 to '30,000 linen who had retired, and other reserves of manpower to be. tapped included 20,000 from the retail trades, 19, 000 from Government and civic -offices, and 10,000 from reorganised industries. It had. been -predicted in Australia that the white-collar workers 'would not be able, to stand up to the hard physical work they ■would be called upon to do, but it lias been reported that those already transferred,-have, not only been able to stand up to the work but also have done it well.. The number of "casualties" lias been small. If the 70,000 now mentioned were in addition to, and not simply a section of, the. numbers required a few weeks -ago, then the transference of labour in the Commonwealth must be reachling its limit.