MEN RUSH JOBS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 635, 11 April 1929, Page 6

MEN RUSH JOBS

UNEMPLOYMENT SERIOUS AUCKLAND’S FIGURES The sluggishness with which employment figures react to improved industrial conditions is emphasised by thoughtful review of Auckland’s position in the Auckland Chamber of Commerce Journal, which says employment figures are stubborn in re- j acting to an otherwise generally improved outlook. The percentages of unionists unem- i ployed on account of scarcity of jobs ] during recent Februaries are given as Hollows for the Auckland Industrial District and for the Dominion as a whole:— Percentage of Unionists Unemployed:—Dominion: February, 1929, 9.2: February, 1928, 11.4; February, 1927, 9.4: February, 1926, 5.0. Auck- 1 land: February. 1929, 13.5; February, 1928, 13.6 February. 1927, 5.0; February. 1926. 8.8. The position will be seen to be less satisfactory in Auckland than throughout New Zealand as a whole. -In interpreting the table it must Ho remembered that unemployment is normally at a minimum in the summer months, and that the February collection of statistics in most years reveals a more satisfactory state of affairs than the other three collections of the year,” the review says. ALL JOBS RUSHED -Despite the fact that placements by the Government Labour Bureaux during the four weeks ended mid-Febru-ary, 1929 i viz.. 1,270), were nearly 40 per cent, in excess of the corresponding figure last year, and that the number of public works employees in January last (4,546) was the highest January figure on record for many years, unemployment remains serious; there being 2,491 unfilled applications on the books this February, as compared with 2,267 last. In interpreting Ihe figures it must be remembered that every announcement of a new a venue of employment being opened is followed by a rush of applications at the bureaux. "In proportion to population, outstanding applications at the bureaux are relatively greatest in Auckland; this city’s figures accounting for over 40 per cent, of the Dominion’s total. • One satisfactory feature of the unemployment situation is the continued reduction in the number of permanent. residents of Nevv Zealand leaving the country ‘for good.’ The figure for January. 1929. was only 207, as compared with 351 12 months ago. The figure for February, 1929, was only 194, as compared with. 690 12 months ago.” -