Unemployment Returns The unemployment figures on June 24th just failed
to fall below the two million figure, the total number of persons on the registers being 2,000,110—the lowest recorded since July, 1930. Large as this figure still is; it should be considered side by side with the remarkable fact that the number of insured persons employed on that date, 10,361,000, was the highest ever recorded. Con- sidering the industrial side of the same question, we may observe that the whole industrial production was (accord- ing to Sir john Simon) within 1 per cent. of the 1929 level. This is equivalent to saying that the national pro- duction has not appreciably fallen off absolutely since the prosperous year of 1929, but shows no increase corresponding to the increase of population. The absolute reduction in America, France and Germany has been 34, 29, and 15 per cent. respectively. But we cannot continually plume ourselves on the fact that others have Suffered more catastrophically than ourselves.
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