§ 56. Mr. Keenanasked the Minister of Labour if he will give instructions to all employment exchanges to establish a rota system for all applicants for employment, so that the applicants will have equal opportunities of being sent to work, thus providing those out of work the longest period a fair chance of securing employment.
§ Mr. IsaacsNo, Sir. I propose to maintain the long-established rule that the applicants submitted for vacancies are those best qualified industrially for the jobs in question.
§ Colonel J. R. H. Hutchisonasked the Minister of Labour whether he is aware that employers in Glasgow fail to get their requirements of labour filled by the local labour office out of the 70,000 unemployed in Scotland, many of whom are ex-Servicemen, whereas, by advertisements in the Press, their demands can frequently be met; and if he will take steps to reorganise the labour office accordingly.
§ Mr. IsaacsNo, Sir; it is not in general the case that employers who notify their requirements to my local offices in Glasgow do not get their vacancies filled, though the degree of success in this matter is necessarily governed by the availability, either locally or elsewhere in Great Britain, of suitable unemployed6W workers. During the four weeks ended 4th September, 1946 (the latest period for which figures are available) my local offices in Glasgow filled 7,758 vacancies and at the end of this period the number of vacancies on the books at these offices was 8,836, including vacancies only just notified. Others were for highly skilled workers to which suitable applicants, as they become available, are submitted without delay. There is, however, a scarcity of such workers. The second part of the Question does not arise.