More People at Work
It is good to know, from a Ministry of Labour report, that in the last quarter of 1931 some 225,000 unemployed persons found work. About 90,000 others ceased under the new rules to receive benefit, so that the total number on the unemployed registers declined to 2,510,000. It is a depressing figure, slightly over a fifth of the insured workers. But after watching the total mount and mount for two years we may well note with thankfulness this substantial decline in the workless total. The improvement was spread over three-fourths of the groups of industries and was especially substantial in coal mining, the distributive trades, and in the cotton industry where 10,000 wholly unemployed persons returned to their mills or weaving sheds. While it would be imprudent to overrate the significance of these figures, they do at least indicate the eagerness of both employers and work- people to take advantage of such opportunities as were offered by the departure from the gold standard. Their spirit is willing, though their circumstances are adverse, We are encouraged in the belief that, given an inter- national settlement of War Debts and Reparations, our industries would be quick to regain much of their old prosperity,
Previous page
