DEMAND FOR WORK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 131, 3 May 1940, Page 6

DEMAND FOR WORK.

CONTRACTS IN THE COUNTRY. EFFECTS OF ENLISTMENTS. According to information supplied by the Palmerston North office of the State Placement Service, the demand for employment is not nearly as acute now, at the entry to the winter period, as in normal times.. A large part of the cause of this is attributed to the enlistments of men for war service. It is stated that there is a good deal of work offering in the country for men able to do it, but this work jjj not to be found adjacent to the , city or Fcilding. In the main it is scrub-cutting, bush-felling, draining, fencing, and stumping. Applications for workmen on subsidy have been received from all over this district, which extends from Waikanae to the Rangitikei River and, over " the ranges, to Dannevirke, The contracts do not have a specified minimum wage, hut are calculated on th© assumption that a man should be able to earn 18s a day. Up to the present time there has not been the same proportion of increase in the numbers of men seeking work as in other years, but the freezing works season has not yet concluded and it is expected that there will be more men available when the season is actually closed. •While this development work is outside -the run of ordinary farm labour in most cases, in actual farm work there is apparent a shortage of youths. Though the busy part of the farming season is now closing, youths are still required and endeavours are being made to secure them, from other districts.