ENG-1967 — Page 56

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EMPLOYMENT

Under the Commonwealth Immigrants Act which came into effect on July 1, 1962 the Labour Department assumed respon- sibility for forwarding to the Ministry of Labour applications for vouchers from local Commonwealth citizens seeking to enter Britain for unspecified employment. During the year, 37 such applications were received and seven vouchers were issued.

The Labour Department also undertook to deliver 190 ‘Category A' vouchers issued under the Commonwealth Immigrants Act to local people of British nationality who had been offered specific jobs in Britain. Last year 124 were issued. The Ministry of Labour also issued 757 labour permits to local residents of non-British nationality to enable them to work in Britain, mainly in Chinese restaurants.

The Local Employment Service, known until May this year as the Employment Information Service, was originally created to disseminate information about vacancies in industry. It was ex- panded and consolidated during the year and now provides the basic functions of an employment exchange introducing registered job seekers to prospective employers and vice versa. During the year the service registered 12,372 workers, recorded 999 requests for workers from employers and placed 1,081 workers.

The Seamen's Recruiting Office, which became fully operational as part of the Marine Department on June 27, 1966, had 42,624 seamen of Chinese race on its registers at the end of the year. During 1967 it supplied 11,4511 seamen for employment at sea in various trades. During the same period shipping firms which were licensed under the Merchant Shipping (Recruitment of Seamen) Ordinance to operate crew departments, supplied 19,408 seamen.

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

In 1965 the government appointed an Industrial Training Advisory Committee, comprising representatives of industry, labour, other organizations and the government, under the chairmanship of the Commissioner of Labour. On its advice, the government appointed six associated industrial committees to investigate and report on industrial training problems in the electronics, textile, clothing and plastics industries (which manufacture about 67 per cent of Hong