SUFFERING IN SILENCE

Evening Star, Issue 22456, 29 September 1936, Page 9

SUFFERING IN SILENCE

UNEMPLOYED BUSINESS MEN LABOUR DEPARTMENT'S INVITATION There is a class of the community whose difficulties during the depression years have been very serious, but their members have never been vocal regarding their hardships, and the public has not been fully aware of the problem these men have had to face on account of their age being regarded as a bar to their reinstatement in the executive and administrative positions which they are qualified to occupy (states a circular issued by the Labour Department). This class consists of professional men and, business executives, many of them with degrees in economics and others also soundly educated and fully experienced in modern business methods. Though some of the men have been compelled to accept assistance from the Employment Promotion ■ Fund, the majority have stood aloof from State or other sources of relief. Having been thrifty during their business careers, they were able to live on their savings for a time when the business firms with which they were associated were forced by economic stress to curtail their operations or crumpled up m industrial ruin. These resources are now exhausted, and assistance is sorely needed, ~ . . The Labour Department’s placement scheme appears to be the only public medium that might be in a position to help these innocent victims of the slump, but so far as that scheme is concerned they are “ a legion that never was listed.” That is to say that, as a class, they have refrained from enrolling as applicants for private employment. This possibly has .been because they have the mistaken idea, that there is no difference’ between registrar tion for relief and enrolment under the placement scheme. There is, indeed, a world of difference. The offices of the scheme are mostly entirely separated from the employment bureaux. There are no forms to sign. The only information required from an applicant is with respect to his business experience. His resources are no copcern of the placement officer, but bis lack of resources commands his sympathy. Such a simple preliminary gives no hint of the tremendous organisation and influence that are ready to be put into operation for the benefit of tms special class, as it has been for the thousands of other unemployed men who have been placed in private employment through its agency. If personal calls for enrolment are not practicable, such men should write to the nearest placement officer, submitting a resume of their qualifications and details of the-positions they have held, forwarding copies of testimonials, and stating whether they are or are not prepared to accept a position away from their home city or town. Numerous placements effected by officers of the placement scheme have exposed the fallacv of the belief that when men reach"the age of 55 or 60 their efficiency in business is negligible. A great many men of those ages, and some a few years older, have been reinstated in their former trades and occupations, and are now giving complete satisfaction. There is therefore no warrant for the belief of many of the unemployed professional men and executives that only their age is the reason they cannot be reabsorbed in business enterprises. . In the aggregate there is a wealth of business ability and experience available amongst the members of this particular class, and the Labour Department is anxious to try and divert this knowledge and wisdom into channels where it will prove greatly beneficial to the men themselves, to business generally, and to the country. The whole of the resources of the department’s placement scheme organisation are at the service of those who desire to take advantage of them, but, of course, no action can be taken until the men make the first move. Placements might, of course, take some time to effect, and it may bo impossible to place some applicants, but at least every possible avenue of employment would be thoroughly explored.