The Upward Trend of Employment The full year's employment statistics
are satisfactory reading. It is not merely a case of observing that the figures for December are better than November, or November better than October ; but that from February until the end of the year there has been a steadily growing volume of employment, accelerated in the later months, the number added to the workers' list in the full year being 567,000. If the movement were to stop here there would be scanty ground for optimism, since even now there are two and a quarter million unemployed. But what is especially encouraging is the substantial increase of employment in such trades as coal-mining, engineering, iron and steel, metal-goods manufacture, ship-building and cotton, the condition of several of these basic industries being pointers to the prospects of industry in general. Moreover, tee figures may be read in conjunction with statistics of the imports of raw materials, which indicate the advance orders of manufacturers. Such facts as these, and the confidence which is beginning to animate the investment market, suggest that, after the invariable post-Christmas slump in January, we may look forward to a continuance of the general upward trend.
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