The Juvenile Workless In his broadcast speech last Tuesday Mr.
Lloyd George called attention to the favourable condition of London in regard to unemployment as contrasted with cities in the north. This fact is worth bearing in mind when we learn from the London Advisory Council for Juvenile Employment that only 1,617 unemployed juveniles were on the registers of the London exchanges on December 18th last, and that over 4,000 vacancies were available. But if we turn to the figures for the whole country we see that they amounted, even in that favourable month; to 72,000 ; so there was no abundance of openings- for young people in most regions ; and in January everywhere the figures were swiftly swollen by the addition of children recently released from school. It is, however, the case that the employment of boys and girls is far better now than in the black year of 1932, and that is all the more remarkable since the abnormal War-time birth-rates had the effect of reducing the exodus from the elementary schools to about 40,000 in London, as compared with a normal 60,000 and (for this year) 65,000. It is an extraordinarily fortunate thing that the increasing exodus of children over fourteen corresponds with an improvement in trade.
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