EFFECT OF CALL-UP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20660, 10 January 1942, Page 4

EFFECT OF CALL-UP

SUPPLY OF LABOUR MORE WOMEN ENGAGED Inquiries in “Wellington concerning the effect on staffs of the mobilisation of the National Military Reserve and the Territorial Force, and the calling up of the remaining single men and of married men without children revealed that retail employer’s may be divided into two groups, those whose class of employment enables women to replace men, and those who cannot obtain further male labour for work which is considered essentially men’s work. In the first, the male labour shortage is being met to a large degree by employing women. In the second, employers are worried, but recognise that the national emergency is of greater importance. Widespread interest also centres in the forthcoming announcement of the Government’s proposals for the better utilisation of man-power to secure the utmost production of essential requirements. In anticipation of this pronouncement, comment in Wellington on the man-power crisis was of a wait-and-see nature. In several retail firms no great degree of concern was expressed as women were being steadily taken into employment. In some department stores the ratio of women to men now employed is almost the reverse of that existing before the war. In one case, 60 per cent, of the male staff had joined the armed forces.