A Worse Unemployment Total The unemployment figures for June show
an increase of 24,000 over those for May. How far is it merely seasonal ? Most (though not all) of the worsening has been in trades which are normally stack at this time of year, such as coal ; yet the formidable addition of 65,000 out-of-work miners looks rather more than seasonal even in this hot summer. Taking the whole table, the improvement as against a year ago remains large—no less than 419,000; but on the month's working, one sees, it has gone back, not forward. Had the current been flowing as it was earlier, this would scarcely have happened ; the seasonal effects would have been cancelled out. It is premature to dogmatize about it pessimistically, but there must be some limit to the extent to which British trade can im- prove without any large general improvement in world trade. And it may be that the slight setback which the figures reveal gives warning of an approach to this limit.
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