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13
UNEMPLOYMENT.
I am indebted to the Manager of the Local Employment Exchange
for the following information appertaining to the year 1954: —
"The year opened with the size of unemployment registers, of
both men and women, about equal to those of the previous January;
a small number of workers had become unemployed following the
outdoor decorating and Christmas seasons, but in late January the
rather prolonged spell of frost affected the Building Industry and about
160 workers were unemployed for a few days.
"During the second quarter an appreciable improvement occurred
as a result of better weather affecting the labour demands of outdoor
industries and the increased requirements of local manufacturing firms,
and gradually the registers mainly consisted of elderly and disabled
workers and married women whose domestic responsibilities restricted
their periods of availability for work.
"This welcome improvement continued steadily through the
remainder of the year except for the gradual tapering off of the holiday
season work which resulted in the numbers of unemployed becoming
steadily greater; but even this position was countered to some extent
by the Christmas season calls for extra workers in certain branches of
Food processing retail distributive trades, and Postal services.
"The decorating trade has shown very little falling off in labour
demands at the time of this report, but we must expect the position to
deteriorate with the coming of the less suitable cold and frosty weather.
"Looking back over the year, one can say it has been one of continued
improvement on earlier years, and there is good reason for the
growing optimism that 1955 will show an even better position locally."