SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20734, 18 February 1939, Page 6

SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Anomalous as it may seem while several thousands of men are still on unemployment relief works, there is a serious shortage of labour in several trades in New Zealand, especially in building. The Hon. P. C. Webb states that up to 10,000 men could be employed in the Government’s building programme, and that there is a shortage of at least 3000 skilled men. Mr J. Hodgens, M.P., has been sent to Australia with a free hand to select building tradesmen for importation to New Zealand. It is strange that more of the men on relief works cannot be recruited to the building trade. Certainly they may not be skilled in the work, but New Zealanders as a whole are adaptable, and if they could be found places in building construction work, two good purposes would be served —essential building could proceed and the unemployment relief funds would be relieved. Wages, of course are one of the main difficulties. Building contractors who tender keenly for construction works cannot afford to pay high wages to unskilled men, and the rigidity of the law prevents accommodation of men who might otherwise be very useful to the building industry. Some give and take in this direction might assist in solving the problem. Mr Webb states that the housing survey revealed that New Zealand required 20,000 more houses and that to meet normal demands at least 6000 houses should be constructed each year. At the present rate it was impossible to keep pace even with normal requirements. In addition, public buildings to cost £18,000,000 were on the waiting list. While many of the projects on the waiting list might well wait, some are definitely urgent, and there is no question about the need for more houses. Probably many men now employed on public works would be willing to make some temporary concession in wages in order to gain places in the building industry. If that is possible, those men are entitled to preference over men imported from overseas.