Employers in Looe and district are being left high and dry with the tourist season fast approaching, with over 100 jobs vacancies displayed on the notice boards of the port's Job Centre failing to attract job seekers.

Officer in Charge of the Centre, based in Fore Street, East Looe, is Mark Tregenza who admits to being puzzled at the lack of interest shown, particularly at this time of year.

'People will miss the boat if they don't start coming in soon' he said.

'Employers fed up with waiting for applicants will either withdraw their vacancies or advertise for workers from further afield. We have 112 jobs which are almost stagnating on our advertising boards'.

Local people

Mr Tregenza said unemployment levels had dropped and the season was starting later this year with Easter falling in April, but there was usually more interest in jobs by now.'

'Local people are just not coming in' he said. Also, he said that as well as the usual seasonal jobs connected with the hospitality sector, the Job Centre also had many other full time and part time jobs in areas such as management, shops, reception, and care.

Managing Director of the Hannafore Point Hotel, Mr Edward Bence, said he was finding it more difficult to get staff year by year. 'Sadly the traditional values of once well thought of occupations have gone' he said. 'Everyone now assumes a degree is the open door to employment but it gives skills in thinking rather than doing. We need to get some pride back in the old worthwhile skills'.

Mr Bence said if he was leaving school now he would train to be a chef or a carpenter, as the job opportunities would be many.

Mr Graham Leslie of the Restgarth Retirement Home, Polperro, who has had no enquiries in a month of looking for a community care assistant, says the predominantly younger age of people seeking work has much to do with the difficulty in filling positions.

'I offer an excellent package here with full training for staff' he said, 'but the young would rather go to the larger towns where the pay is better and transport cheaper'.

He said the infrastructure in rural areas was poor, whereby people having to travel about 10 miles a day to work would lose about £20 a week from their wages in travelling expenses.

He also felt there was too much emphasis on degrees alone and not on a wider cross section of skills.

Mr Tregenza says that anyone in the travel to work area has the option of scanning the Looe and district jobs. Job seekers in the Liskeard area for instance can go to the Liskeard Centre in Church Street, where staff will show them what Looe has on offer via their computers, or they can come to Looe to see the bulging vacancies boards for themselves.

The Looe office can be contacted on 01503 754400 and Liskeard on 01579 335000.