IMMIGRANTS NEEDED TO MAINTAIN PROSPERITY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27896, 18 February 1956, Page 8

IMMIGRANTS NEEDED TO MAINTAIN PROSPERITY

LABOUR SHORTAGE IN BRITAIN—II

[By

RICHARD DENMAN

of the ''Economist”}

[From the “Economist” Intelligence Unit]

London.—lf Britain’s present boom is to be maintained, more workers must be found from sc.newhere. Where? There seems little likelihood, in present conditions, of finding them in this country, unless the armed forces are drastically cut. Unemployment. at just over 200.000. is down to rock-bottom. Nor is there much scope for recruitment from declining industries or depressed areas. There is only one declining industry of any size at the moment, and that is the Lancashire cotton industry. But during the last year, workers have been moving out of this so fast that there is now actually a labour shortage in the mills. There is only one depressed area left in the United KingdomNorthern Ireland, where about 5 per cent, are still out of work. But this reserve pool of unemployed amounts only to some 26.000, while the number of vacant jobs in Britain is nearly 500,000. And if, as seems likely, part of the manufacture of the new Ferguson car is located in Ulster, Northern Ireland will itself need all the workers it can get. . , , , More use could certainly be made of older people in industry, but against this it must be remembered that we are pledged to raise the school-leaving age by one year as soon as possible. So what is gained at one end may be lost at the other. What about recruiting more women. This has been done to a very considerable extent in the last three years. Between June, 1952, and August. 1955. the number of women in civil employment went up by 513,000, while the male increase in the same period was only 396.000. A number of employers have set up factory branches in suburban areas which rely almost entirely on part-time work by housewives. Now it seems that the limits of this development have been reached. Besides, it is dangerous to put too much reliance on female labour, much of which is inevitably casual and done on a “pin-money” basis. “Startling” Immigration Rate The new recruits to British industry must come, it would seem, from abroad —from the Colonies, from Eire, or from the Continent. To a larger extent than many of us realise, they are coming already. Last year, about 100.000 workers from foreign and Commonwealth countries found employment here. Every year about 20.000 new workers come into Britain from Eire. Most of them take jobs with builders or contractors. Many of Ihe teams which get coal from opencast sites are Irish. Others work in the docks and shipyards of Merseyside and Clydeside. This is not a particularly new development. But the mass immigration of West Africans is. It is rather startling that the rate of immigration into this country is now about the highest in the Commonwealth. In 1954. 10,000 immigrants came from the West Indies. Last year about 17,000 came, and this year it is thought about 20.000 will arrive, rising'to 30.000 by 19t0. At that rate, the present coloured population of 35.000 might well be up to 500.000 by Ihe 1970’5. The inflow of coloured workers

raises enormous questions of colour prejudice. To their credit, all the leading trade unions have emphatically refused to tolerate an “industrial colour bar.” Nevertheless, there have been a number of cases of workers refusing to accept coloured workmates for fear of losing the strong bargaining position which comes from labour scarcity. The position varies from trade to trade. In West Bromwich and Wolverhampton, bus crews have refused to accept coloured men. On the London underground they have been accepted without difficulty and are working well. Even more controversial, unhappily, is the question of importing Italian workers. Italy is the last great reservoir of surplus labour in Western Europe. In the backward southern provinces there are still some 2.000.000 unemployed. In recent years, Italy has sent its surplus workers to help meet labour shortages in France, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands’ Italians provide almost all the underground workers in Belgian coal mines, since few Belgians can be persuaded t<) work at the coal-face. Now the National Coal Board wants to bring in 10.000 Italians to fill the manpower gaps in British mines. The miners’ leaders would be willing for them to come, out the miners themselves suspect that it is a trick to weaken their case for higher pay. Unfortunately, it looks as if a similar position is now arising on the railways. The British Transport Commission wants to bring in 2000 Italians to help on the upkeep of rail tracks, but it looks as if the railwaymen’s union will veto it. But, while such cases attract headlines, it should be remembered that several thousands of foreign workers do come to this country every year to take jobs in industry under Ministry of Labour permits. Unions Reluctant It is perhaps natural for the unions to try to retain the bargaining advantage which comes from the scarcity of workers, and some unions—particularly craft unions—try to create an artficial labour shortage by restricting entry into their trade. A particularly notable case has been the printing trade, where the employers have just managed to persuade the unions to relax their restrictions on recruitments in return for a new wages settlement. The docks are another case where the unions tend to restrict new entrants. Under the dock labour scheme, their approval has to be obtained for the recruitment of new labour. But a more serious culprit for labour shortages than the trade unions is our educational system, which is not providing enough scientists, technicians, and skilled engineers to fill the vacancies in British industry. It is estimated that industry needs at least one-third more scientists immediately. Of all uur shortages, it is the shortage of nighly-skilled men which is the most serious: and this cannot be filled from Italy. Eire, or the Colonies. Unless we can train more of these men more quickly, we shall find it very hard to keep up the momentum of the second industrial revolution now in progress, on which our prosperity, and therefore employment. depends.