Newspaper Article – November hailstorm reduced student jobs

November hailstorm reduced student jobs

The hailstorm which hit Hawke’s Bay last November played a big part in reducing jobs for students over the summer holiday period.

Hawke’s Bay Student Job Search manager Lyn Bevin said while horticulture provided as many jobs as last year, the duration of the jobs was shorter, leading to less job security.

Many of the post-hail clean-up jobs were handled by Taskforce Green workers, she said.

Overall, the number of students placed in jobs was 1313, down on last year’s figure of 1574. However, Mrs Bevin said last year’s figures were “artificially inflated” because of a different enrolment procedure.

The number of businesses offering work was down on last year by 13 per cent.

The biggest drop came from people wanting students to perform “household” duties. Over this season 241 jobs were offered by this sector, 50 per cent fewer than for the 1993/94 period.

Mrs Bevin said contributing to this was a reduction in advertising expenditure, particularly for radio and newspapers.

“Next season we will advertise in newspapers only as I feel we don’t have the resources to gain sufficient advertising impact in radio,” she said.

Mrs Bevin estimated 600 students had claimed the emergency unemployment benefit. She said she knew of several students who had given up their studies because of financial hardship caused through high fees and little holiday work.

The Student Job Search office in Warren St, Hastings, would remain open from Monday to Friday between the hours of 9am and 12.30pm. There are still a small number of students seeking evening and weekend work.