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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 26. 1975

So you're looking for a job?

page break

So you're looking for a job?

Cartoon by Brocke of a man in a suit and hat smoking a cigar

It seems very likely that work for the Christmas Vacation this year is going to be harder to get. In as far as we can estimate, it is going to be more difficult this time than it was in the panic periods in 1967 and 1972. A number of signs point this way. One is the seasonal downturn in unemployment, which in previous years comes about mid-September, so that the unemployment figures are dropping quite sharply by the time students start looking for vacation work.

This year the decline in unemployment has only just started and is very small. Meanwhile unemployment figures in Auckland and Hawkes Bay are rather high and there are reports that the food processing companies in Hawkes Bay will be reducing their planting and harvesting quite substantially this year because of a variety of export problems. Then again, a fairly high number of people have been employed for some time by government departments on relief work schemes, so that a lot of the work which normally accumulates during the year and is done by students during vacation periods, has been dealt with. All this points to fewer jobs being available during the Christmas Vacation period.

The Careers Advisory Board and the Students Association are doing what they can to improve the situation. A lot of publicity is being prepared, employers are being asked to bear students in mind and to make jobs available. However, in the circumstances, our advice is to first contact the employer who gave you a job last year, and if this fails, second, to keep in close touch with the Vacation Work Bureau at the Careers Advisory Board office at 6 Kelburn Parade.

There is a notice board in the main office at 6 Kelburn Parade and all jobs coming into the office will be put up there as soon as they are notified to the Careers Advisory Board. A rather smaller number of jobs are likely to come through the Students Association office, so it is worth your while to check the notice boards in the Students Association foyer as well.

Advice to students seeking work

1.If you had a job last year go back to your employer and ask him for a job this year, and do it now.
2.If you didn't have a job or can't go back to your old one, start looking now.
3.Use the services of your Association and the Careers Advisory Board.
4.If by about half-way through exams you still haven't got a job register as unemployed. The Labour Department should find jobs for you.

Unemployment Benefit for Students

As far as we can ascertain, the system works like this:

1. Students who have failed to find holiday work go to the Employment Service, Department of Labour at its District Office either in Lower Hutt or in Wellington. They complete one of the standard interview sheets which requests name, address, relative work experience, and so on.

The Office now operates on the appointments system, so that people who have completed the interview sheet have an appointment made for them, usually in two days time. In the intervening period, the Interviewing Officer will endeavour to find suitable work for the applicant.

2. If the efforts of the Interviewing Officer do not succeed, the applicant is asked to complete a Form ES. 11 and referred to the District Office of the Department of Social Welfare. The ES. 11 form is basically a form of introduction to the Social Welfare section, and again gives only basic details.

3. At the Social Welfare Department, the applicant is interviewed again and completed the normal application form for unemployment benefit. In the case of students, in terms of the announcement made by the Minister of Labour late in 1974, this is the so-called "Emergency Benefit". The application form requires the applicant to give, in addition to basic details, including, if the applicant is living at home, the income of the parents.

The Interviewing process and the form filling are therefore somewhat similar to the procedures which students have to undergo when applying for hardship bursaries.

4. Providing everything is in order, emergency benefit is paid from the date of the first interview by the Labour Department until the student either [unclear: finds] vacation work or the Labour [unclear: Department] finds suitable work for him or her, or until the start of the new academic year, whichever is the sooner.

5. The Officers at the Department of Labour and Social Welfare Department [unclear: a] most emphatic in stressing that they I approach this rather complex application process with the benefit of the applicant in mind and that they will do their [unclear: utmo] to find suitable work for the applicant and to make the entire application [unclear: proce] as efficient and as painless as possible.

If students have any difficulty getting the emergency unemployment benefit they should see the students association immediately - a waste of time means a waste of money.

What to do if you do get a job

If you do get a job join the union immediately. Apart from the fact that this is obligatory, in times of economic recession you may very easily be retrenched, and will thus need the support of your union. If you do join the union don't use your position to shit stir. That doesn't mean that if the case arises you shouldn't make a democratic decision, but at all times remember that for you this is just a holiday job, for your fellow work mates its their life. Respect their opinions and don't try to be either a new Muldoon, or a new Lenin. If your workmates decide to go on strike don't moan support them for similar reasons to those given above.

If you get into hassles

If you get into any hassles during the holidays, call on the Students Association. Lisa Sacksen will be available every work day up to 31 December. If you can't get through to her then call NZUSA at 856669. This looks like being a bad summer for all New Zealanders who work - look for all the help you can get.