SERVICE THE IDEAL

Evening Star, Issue 22464, 8 October 1936, Page 13

SERVICE THE IDEAL

STATE PLACEMENT SCHEME When the Government’s rehabilitation measure, up till now known as the Placement Scheme, was launched upon the somewhat troubled sea of unemployment (says a circular of the Labour Department), the idea in the minds of its originators was that it was to be dedicated to the service of men who needed assistance in getting back to suitable private employment. “ Service ” was to be the impetus governing the administration of this venturesome plan, and probably to the persistence in this ideal is duo the fact that during the four months that the plan has been in operation its service has proved so efficient that 4,251 men have been taken from the relief registers and placed in permanent positions at normal wages. Temporary work that in many instances may lead to more satisfactory arrangements has been found for 2,213 men, while casual employment of a week or so has benefited 1,731 individuals. Born coincident with the improvement of economic conditions and stimulation of trade, the scheme was regarded as a warranted and very interesting social experiment, launched in the hope that it would prove itself a definite aid to employer and employee. This hope has been markedly fulfilled, and it is now obvious that it has been gratefully adopted as the child of industrial necessity. The scheme’s emergence from the realms of conjecture with such a splendid record of practical achievement has been marked by its official acceptance as a permanent function of the Labour Department, and in future it will bear the more imposing title of “ State Placement Service,” thus typifying in its change of name the purpose for which it established. Though the word “ placement ” is not to be found in most dictionaries, it has been retained because there is associated with it a goodwill that has become a valued asset in the scheme’s growth to maturity.

There will be no variation in the existing methods of administering the service. Its scope has been considerably widened by establishing close contact with the 360 district officers of the employment division of the Labour Department, which ensures to every enrolled man the right to consideration for employment in any part of the Dominion where there are suitable vacancies.

It is now in deed, ns wpll as in name, a “ State ” service, and it is hoped that, by continuance of its efficient, prompt, and free assistance, it will grow in popularity and usefulness, and eventually become the universal and trusted agency between employers and employees in every branch of industry and commerce.