A Check in Trade Unemployment in July is often a
little higher than in June. Last year it was so by 4,067 only. This year the difference is 33,674. 'It is nothing to cause alarm. Factory holidays and an influx of school-leavers account for most of it. But remembering that June's figures had already shown a rather disconcerting increase over May's, it probably has a meaning. A year ago trade was unmistakably on the up-grade. The improvement was not sensational, but it was steady from month to month, and practically smoothed out seasonal setbacks. This state of things lasted till the spring of the present year. But it operates no longer. Trade, if not declining, is stationary ; and whether the arrest in its recovery is temporary or more permanent, no one can be sure. The sense of a check for the time being will, apart from the figures, be confirmed, we think, by a good many business men. The most noticeable decline, following and emphasizing one a month ago, is in the . textile trades. That of cotton occasions no surprise. But that in the woollen industry is another story ; for down to quite recently it was doing well.
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