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Employment Exchanges, Labour Exchanges, Recruitment Agencies

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
There were a lot of staff employed by the Corporation Street/Steelhouse Lane Employment Exchange in 1917 in this photo. As there’s a man in military uniform I assume the government Employment Exchanges played some role in military recruitment/training/support as well in employment at home. This photo is on the roof of the earlier ‘old’ Employment Exchange - the building prior to the 1930s building built further away near the Ben Johnson Pub. A photo of the building is below.

Viv

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21B8A3A5-8239-4784-BEF7-3AE9697A2B84.jpegSource: British Newspaper Archive

The old Labour Exchange is shown on the right of this photo
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Vivienne14 said:
There were a lot of staff employed by the Employment Exchange in 1917 in this photo. As there’s a man in military uniform I assume the government Employment Exchanges played some role in military recruitment/training/support as well in employment at home. This photo is on the roof of the earlier ‘old’ Employment Exchange - the building prior to the 1930s building built further away near the Ben Johnson Pub. A photo of the building is below.

Viv

View attachment 173270


View attachment 173269Source: British Newspaper Archive

The old Labour Exchange is shown on the right of this photo
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There was a large Labour Exchange at the top of Oldknow Road Small Heath, a substantially sized building .
 
Covroad said:
There was a large Labour Exchange at the top of Oldknow Road Small Heath, a substantially sized building .
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Yes. I have travelled down there on the 28 bus to sign on at the Labour Exchange in Oldknow Road after I had left school and was waiting to start art college. That was the era of National Insurance stamps so signing on ensured that contributions were started.
 
My first employment as an apprentice electrician a more senior electrician I worked with , who was very forthright with his views use to use the term ‘you can start licking them on for me’ this was a direct reference to national insurance stamps. As you actually had cards in those days with NI stamps on them .
This was his standard response to the Supervisor when he was not happy with a situation, which was most of my time with him , he had a reputation for his views but he was a very knowledgeable electrician . Working with him was a very formative time in my early days at work, and very amusing.
 
The one I recall was Alfred Street, Aston. I called in to collect my cards from school and passed them to my new employer.
 
Vivienne14 said:
There were a lot of staff employed by the Corporation Street/Steelhouse Lane Employment Exchange in 1917 in this photo. As there’s a man in military uniform I assume the government Employment Exchanges played some role in military recruitment/training/support as well in employment at home. This photo is on the roof of the earlier ‘old’ Employment Exchange - the building prior to the 1930s building built further away near the Ben Johnson Pub. A photo of the building is below.

Viv

View attachment 173270


View attachment 173269Source: British Newspaper Archive

The old Labour Exchange is shown on the right of this photo
View attachment 173271View attachment 173272
Click to expand...
Nice pictures Viv, I can confirm that Employment Offices were used for conscription. All men and women, that were liable for conscription were registered at employment exchanges or other employment offices. I remember talking to a couple of ladies, who were shortly due to retire at Beacon Hill Employment Office in Aston in the early 80s, talking to me about having played a part in sending those young men into the services. We also had a cashier, who had parachuted into Arnhem during Operation Market Garden in 1944.

As far as the chap in uniform is concerned, I wonder whether he may have been a member of staff at the Post Office, who was home on leave, when the photograph was taken? Although your suggestion, is much more likely. Here is a photo taken at Birmingham Recruitment Office No. 11 at Birmingham's Museum & Art Gallery, that shows Pals signing up at the outbreak of the war:

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A few quick facts about the start of the Labour Exchange from the BBC history site

62 were unveiled across the country in 1910, with seven in Birmingham.

The centres were part of Winston Churchill's plan to bring together employers and those out of work.

Men and women were originally forced to use separate entrances to the buildings and those as young as 11 would queue up to find work.

Birmingham originally had job centres at:
  • Aston - 10 Witton Lane
  • 205 Corporation Street
  • 85-86 Great Hampton Street
  • Newtown, High Street
  • Sparkhill, 408 Stratford Road
  • Strirchley, 329 Pershore Road
  • Handsworth, 198 Soho Road

Many were set up in abandoned offices, disused factories, shops, and even chapels in every major city in the UK.

The first recruitment drive saw around 20,000 people apply for posts and drew staff from all walks of life - trade unionists, works managers and ex-soldiers.


Viv.
 
This is Handsworth. I originally posted these on another thread. The building is still there with some alteration and a distinct change of use.

The professional employment service mentioned in Vivian Bird’s article was known as Professional & Executive Recruitment (PER). I worked there for several years in the late 1970s, the only Birmingham office being in Fountain Court, Steelhouse Lane. It was still a government service and was for those seeking professional level jobs. We were able to electronically input potential candidate details to match them to jobs - way, way ahead of its time as a process. We had our own vacancy newspaper which was eventually bought by a private recruitment company before PER was closed down. The newspaper was a valuable resource at the time. The whole enterprise must have cost a lot of money. We had up to the minute office equipment and furniture, computer print outs (remember those long, long sheets of data !?) and a change of titles (instead of Civil Service ‘officers’ we had “Managers”and “Deputies” of different functions, “Candidate” and “Recruitment Consultants”, similar to the private sector - unthinkable titles for Civil Servants at the time). It was definitely an image purposely created to compete in the private recruitment agency market. A far cry from the 1910 Labour Exchange development. We did however retain the military-like structure when it came to seniority and pay !
Viv.

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There was a time when most high streets in major towns or cities had several recruitment agencies. This image of New Street shows Alfred Marks to the right and Office Angels to the left. I don’t think any recruitment agency now has shop high street premises, at most they have an office space for a service primarily carried out over the Internet today. Viv.

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Vivienne14 said:
There was a time when most high streets in major towns or cities had several recruitment agencies. This image of New Street shows Alfred Marks to the right and Office Angels to the left. I don’t think any recruitment agency now has shop high street premises, at most they have an office space for a service primarily carried out over the Internet today. Viv.

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great pic thanks i have never seen new st so empty of traffic
 
Depends what you mean by "High St". Certainly up till Covid there were a numberof small agencies in Reading on roads leading off from the main streets, usually dealing with specialist groups (nurses, truck drivers etc), which had public access and strongly advertised themselves outside . Many/most seem to have been eliminated by Covid. Unfortunately estate agents do not seem to have suffered the same fate
 
mikejee said:
Depends what you mean by "High St". Certainly up till Covid there were a numberof small agencies in Reading on roads leading off from the main streets, usually dealing with specialist groups (nurses, truck drivers etc), which had public access and strongly advertised themselves outside . Many/most seem to have been eliminated by Covid. Unfortunately estate agents do not seem to have suffered the same fate
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grrrrrrrrrrr
 
AnnS said:
There used to be something known as the youth employment service for school leavers
looking for work, labour exchange i thought was for 18 years old and over...
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Yes, that's correct.

As I mentioned in a thread about Warren Farm Road, I was told I needed to get some cards from the Labour Exchange by my first employer so I went up to Kingstanding where I was told I needed to go to the Youth Employment office as I was under 18.
Luckily there was one not far away on Warren Farm Road - of course I was totally clueless about it all and I hadn't taken my birth certificate. They asked if I had any other ID on me but the only things I had in my purse were club cards from places like the Plaza and the Carlton club :laughing:

Amazingly, after a bit of a discussion, they said ok and issued me with the cards!
That would never happen today!!
 
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