SHORTAGE OF TYPISTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 3 September 1942, Page 5

SHORTAGE OF TYPISTS

DEMAND IN WELLINGTON HIGH WAGES FOR GIRLS Inquiries at an average rate of 18 a day are being received by a Wellington commercial college for shorthand-typists, and there is no possibility of all the positions that are offered being filled at this time of the year. Though the amount of work to be done in most Wellington, commercial houses has dwindled there is still a great shortage of trained workers.

The withdrawal of men from offices for service in the Army has caused typists’ positions to become vacant, many employers finding that the best way, or even the only way, to get through the work previously done by their male bookkeepers and accountants who have left them, being to promote senior typists already in the office and familiar with the work the men used to do. In addition, young women employees have volunteered for the services or have been directed to other work by manpower committees, so that the staffs of private offices have been denuded of their lower graded employees. The shortage of the supply of typists and the demand for the services of those who remain available to the private employer have raised the value of their labour. A member of the staff of the college mentioned already states that girls are receiving on leaving the school wages between 30s and £2, according to their ability. The award wage was 19s 3d, but, he said, the award did not count to-day. The case of a girl aged 15 receiving £3 15s for a week's temporary employment was mentioned.

Referring to the fact that high wages for juveniles tempt their parents to accept positions for them before they are completely trained, in spite of the warnings of their teachers that the day may come when they will be out of work because of their inefficiency, the same speaker pointed out that the exemption from wages taxation of children under 16 was an important influence in times of high juvenile wages. It was a strong influence towards the sending of children to work before they had completed their training. She suggested that the school leaving age and the age at which wages taxation became payable should coincide.