The Migration of Workers Interesting light on the movements about
the country of insured workers in search of employment is cast by calculations made by the Ministry of Labour on the basis of a sample analysis of the unemployment insurance-books exchanged in July of last year. From tables showing in which area insurance-books were issued and what proportion of them were exchanged in other areas it can be seen that out of a total of 8,271,000 insured men in Great Britain in July of last year the number then working in another division than the one in which they began work was 576,830, or 7 per cent. A further analysis of the figures shows that 16 per cent. of the 537,000 men who began their industrial life in Wales were in other parts of the country last year—and nearly half of them were in the London and South-Eastern areas. In the Northern division 13 per cent. of the books originally taken out in that area had been exchanged elsewhere last year and 41,94o of them, or 51 per cent., in the London and South-Eastern areas. Proposals for dealing with this increasing migration to London must wait until the Royal Commission on the Location of Industry has reported. Far-reaching decisions may have to be taken then.
Previous page
