MARKED INCREASE OF PEOPLE IN INDUSTRY

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5283, 20 December 1946, Page 2

MARKED INCREASE OF PEOPLE IN INDUSTRY

JUVBNILBS FQRM 17 PER CENT. OF WORKING POPULATION Final figures releasecj, by the National Employment Service as a result of the October employment information retums, show an increase in the working. population in the . Rotorua-Bay of 'Plenty Employment Distrjct as compared with the Survey . , made in the previous April. Government Departments are included in the following figures, but paft-time emplolyee's aaid '^cme man" businesses have nof been taken into' account. Seasonal industries such as farming _ •and dairy factories, have also been omitted. Separate action, mainly on a month to month basis is taken to obtain the neeessary date for them. The 902 units in the district' employ a total of 10, '803 persons, of whom 858 are working proprietors. Of the employees,. 7369 are males and 2576 females. Of the working pro- ; prietors 112 are females. Thd April ; 1 returns showed 817 units employing 6784 males' and 2578 females, and with the addition of working proprietors (779), a total of 10,M1. In spite of the increase in the labour force employedj vacancies in October existed for 394 males and 137 females, as compared with the April figure of 202 males and 101 females. 'Perhaps the most interesting com- ; parison is that of the figures for juvj eniles employed, (i.e. persons un'der | 21 years of age). In April the total j was 1691, being 879 males and 812 ; females. or 16.6 per cent. of the work- • ing population. The October figures are 738 males and .815 females, a total of 1553, or 14.37 per cent. of the working population. This means that although on on the one hand, workers have been reaching the adult age of 21, the in'take of juniors and those from school, on the other hand has not been sufficient to maintain . the proportion. This is rnore evident in respect of males and while the total number of female juniors employed in October has shown an increase of three over the April figure, it must be remembered that there are now 79 more units operating. With the end of the 1946 school year falling within the period to be surveyed in April,' 1947, it will of course be neeessary to wait until then before a really accurate comparison can be made. j i