MINISTER’S CLAIM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1938, Page 5

MINISTER’S CLAIM

UNEMPLOYMENT DOWN TO ZERO POSITION IN DOMINION & ELSEWHERE. SUSTENANCE MEN REQUIRED TO ACCEPT WORK. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The claim that unemployment in New Zealand had been reduced to zero was made by the Minister of Labour, the Hon H. T. Armstrong, during his speech in the Budget Debate in the House of Representatives last night. The figures were, as far as he knew, the lowest during any July and August in the history of the country.

The total number of men on sustenance at present, said the Minister, was 3240, and these could be considered as being capable of full work or some work. Beside that, there were 8000 unfit men, but the 3240 were the only men in all New Zealand for whom some employment could not be found. Though unemployment figures were practically down to zero, he was not going to say that a lot of men would not be classed as unemployed if work had not been found for them by the department, but while full-time employment was being found for them they could not properly be classed as unemployed. Very unfair comparisons could be made of unemployment figures. It could be said, for instance, that in 1933 there were 79,500 unemployed in New Zealand, because under the system used at that time, the report of the department showed that number as the total. Men working on subsidised buildings were shown as unemployed. It was fair for the Opposition, of course, to count the men in subsidised employment now as a comparison. There had been criticism of the practice of paying sustenance to men who were fit, but the number were being rapidly decreased. The department had adopted the attitude that if a single man, and in some instances a married man, could afford to refuse work in the country, he could afford to do without sustenance.