H.—3o

2

Section I.—Employment. Since the issue of the last year's report in July, 1920, the Department has placed a further 6,908 discharged soldiers in employment, making a total placement to August, 1921, of 24,959; and the following table indicates the number absorbed by the various groups of industry in each of the four centres : ■

The number on the Employment Wanted Register of the Department as at the 20th June, 1920, was 151, and conditions remained normal until about March, 1921, when the present financial stringency began to affect the situation. Many employers during the past six months have dispensed with the services of men who had been in constant employment since their r turn, and who had been looked upon as repatriated, and, as a consequence of this, our list of men requiring work gradually rose, until in June, 1921, there were 398 names on the register--the highest since August, 1919. There has been a slight decrease in both the July and August figures, and the number awaiting employment at the date of this report is 329. It might be argued that this number distributed throughout the Dominion does not disclose an alarming position, but, as billets are very scarce at the present time, it will require the sustained efforts of the Department and the continued co-operation of all employers to prevent the unemployment situation from becoming acute. A graph covering operations since the inception of the Department is given below, and shows the number of men placed in employment each month and the number remaining on the register.

EMPLOYMENT OF DISCHARGED SOLDIERS. In this graph the black bars show the number of men placed in employment each month by the Repatriation Department. The white bars show the number remaining on the register.

Unemployment sustenance at the rate of £2 2s. per week to the soldier, 10s. per week to the wife, and 3,5. od. per week for each child (not exceeding.four) may be paid in cases of hardship, but during the past twelve months it has been necessary to grant this form of assistance in only forty-one cases (at a cost of £231),

56 64 1 6 164 6 456 89 7 61