DEMAND FOR LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2322, 2 December 1914, Page 7

DEMAND FOR LABOUR

■UNEMPLOYMENT RAPIDLY DIMINISHING. A reporter who made inquiries at the Labour Department yesterday was informed that the number of unemployed in the Dominion had diminished very considerably during the last few months, and that ( the trouble of this kind actually experienced had been much less than some ■ people anticipated in the early stages of the war. Apart from the principal cities the only town in which unemployment attained any magnitude was Timaru. There, some time ago, 178 men were reported to be out of work, but within the last fortnight the number has been reduced to 20. Of the total number originally unemployed, the Labour Department found work for .43. The balance, with the exception of 20, obtained employment through other.channels. The officials cf the Department are unable to explain just how there came to be so many unemployed in Timaru, but they are convinced men out of work must have drifted there from other centres. ; In the' four chief'cities unemployment has been, most severely felt in Auckland arid Christchurch, and' quite recently there have been as many as 100 men out of work in each of these places. The Department, however, is now able to find,work for all labourers, arid in Auckland the unemployment' of carpenters, whioh was a marked feature of the position, has been mitigated by the amount of work offering in the construction of workers' dwellings. The last nine of a lot of 25 workers' dwellings were put in hand there last week. -The Labour Department has recen% been under the necessity of sending met from the South Island to places as fai distant as Gisborae and Tauranga, in order to find them work, but the position, as stated, is rapidly improving, and it i 6 expected that from December onwards, with harvesting and various seasoned industries in full swing, work will easily be found for every available worker. The amount of harvest work should be increased this year owing to the area under crop having been extended as a result of the appeal which the Prime Minister addressed to fannere some months ago.