FINANCIAL NOTES
FEBRUARY UNEMPLOYMENT.
THE February unemployment figures make slightly better reading than have the returns of the previous four months, but they are not conclusive evidence that the business recession has been arrested. The decline in unemployment amounts to about 17,000 ; it is the first downward movement since August, but a seasonal decline of about 6o,00o would have been more normal at this period. In some industries, too, there is evidence that the depression is still spreading. The textile industries, the distributive trades and engineering are the outstanding cases. The decline has also touched some sections of the iron and steel industry, though to only a minor degree.
But if the unemployment figures do not show that the recession has been stopped, they at least indicate that its progress has been much retarded. The slight seasonal improvement, too, consists entirely of men of the " wholly unemployed " class, and its incidence is where it was most needed, in such industries as building and radio manufacture. The figures, when taken in conjunction with current market reports which suggest that some of the most depressed industries, for example wool, are expecting recovery, are not unsatisfactory.
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