12 SEPTEMBER 1925, Page 6

THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

BY ARTHUR. GREENWOOD, M.P.

I.—AN ANALYSIS OF THE UNEMPLOYED.

The remarkable fact is that, notwithstanding the enormous wastage of the War, the unsettlement in Europe, the restriction of world trade, nearly ninety per cent. of our people are at work, and the actual number in work is greater than it was on the outbreak of the Great War, whilst British trade has succeeded in holding its own in the markets of the world. Indeed, Britain enjoys a larger proportion of the world's trade than it did before the War, though the actual volume of trade is less. This is not to say that all is well with British industrY, or that the prospect of over a million and a quarter un-, employed is one to be taken lightly. On the contrary, thd situation is one of great gravity, demanding bold and far.) reaching action. My purpose in emphasizing the com-), parative success with which we have survived the after= math of war is not to under-estimate the seriousness of our plight, but to stress our capacity for dealing with) the problems which confront us.

Who are these million and a quarter workers or more who are without employment ? Not an army of ne'er-do-4, wells and idlers who prefer to live on what people who enjoy unearned incomes describe as the " dole," but skilled shipyard workers, engineers, miners and textile operatives—men who have been the backbone of British) industry, and whose skill has surpassed that of thee workers of other countries, men who served in the Great War, and who were told that the world was never going to be the same again, and that their deeds would never be forgotten, boys and girls upon whom will rest the future of this country. We are too apt to think of the unem- ployed in the lump. The truth is that they consist of several quite distinct groups of workers. There are first a considerable number of boys and girls who have obtained their introduction to the labour-market during the present trade depression. Unemployment is relatively less severe amongst these young workers than amongst older people, whilst unemployment amongst young men_ and women between twenty and twenty-four is above the average. It is said that there are few lads now serving apprenticeships in the engineering shops and the shipyards, and the supply of skilled labour for the future is therefore gravely imperilled. A large number of these juvenile workers have obtained work to the detriment of rather older workers, so that the young workers have gained at the expense of their elder brothers and sisters, who are more than pro- portionately swelling the ranks of the unemployed.

This twenty to twenty-four group has never known normal times. These workers entered industry during the War, and their subsequent experience has been derived during a quite abnormal period. Many of them have suffered intermittent periods of unemployment since the end of the War. Large numbers have not obtained the kind of industrial training and experience which would have been theirs during times of normal trade.

The unemployed army includes well over half a million married men and more than 75,000 married or widowed women. Nearly three-fifths of the applicants (of all ages) for unemployment benefit have dependents. A sub- stantial proportion of the married men have wives and children dependent on them.

Lastly, about a fifth of all unemployed males are fifty- five years of age and over. They are ageing men who, once they fall out of work, find it extraordinarily difficult to re- establish themselves.

Briefly, therefore, the unemployed army consists of youths who have not had a fair chance, elderly workers, many of them highly skilled, who are slipping out of the labour market, and a large body of workers at interme- diate ages, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled, many of them married and burdened with dependents. The men include a good many ex-Service men.

The distribution of unemployment in industry is very unequal. The heaviest burden is found in shipbuilding, the metal trades and coal-mining. It is chiefly in the export industries that unemployment is most severe, and if these trades are exclualed the unemployment in the remaining industries does not show alarmingly high figures.

I have referred to over a million and a quarter unem- ployed. Strictly speaking, I should have said that there was this number of workers registered as unemployed at the Employment Exchanges in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This number does not represent the total unemployed army. The vast majority of the regis- tered workers are insured persons. But juveniles under sixteen are not insured, and, though numbers may use the Employment Exchanges when in search of work, there is no complete record of unemployment amongst juvenile workers. Moreover, there are odds and ends of people who are not insured against unemployment and who do not necessarily apply to the Employment Exchanges, as well as unemployed workers who fall out of benefit and give up the hopeless daily visit to the Exchange. It is no exaggeration to say that there are at least a million and a half workers to-day seeking employment.

How is the problem to be dealt with ? It is certainly not to be solved by any proposal for withdrawing or re- ducing what is called the " dole," or depriving any number of people of benefit. There is a theory abroad, to which colour is lent by newspaper reports of the obiter dicta of certain magistrates regarding the " dole " and of isolated cases of abuse, that, if the number of people receiving benefit were reduced, the situation would in some way be improved. No reasonable person with any know- ledge of the facts will believe that all the unemployed are wasters. Even if there were 50,000 who were refused benefit and driven into jobs, it would only result in driving out of work 50,000 now employed, and would lead to no net improvement in the national situation. Obviously, to reduce unemployment benefits would avail nothing, for one of two things would happen. Either the pur- chasing power of the unemployed would be reduced to the detriment of producers and sellers of the goods the workers consume and to the detriment of employment generally, or their purchasing power would be maintained by supplementary relief from the Boards of Guardians. It was shown when the " gap " periods existed and no un- covenanted benefit was payable that Poor Law Relief increased in the various Poor Law areas by the amount that was paid in benefit, whilst the increase in State benefit last year has directly benefited the Poor Law Authorities.

Nor can we expect any assistance from Sir Alfred Mond's proposal to subsidize wages. This proposal has been rejected by the Government and by the official Opposition. It is felt that it would prove to be imprac- ticable, and its operation would tend to extend the area of subsidized employment, leaving our last case worse than our first A solution of the grave difficulties of our day is not to be sought in any single, simple panacea, but it may be reached by the best use of our available labour power, the development of our national resources, the development of Britain overseas, and the restoration of foreign markets. Each of these lines of approach needs separate considera- tion.