POPULATION WORKINC

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28451, 4 December 1957, Page 13

POPULATION WORKINC

Drop In “Actively Engaged”

i Of. the total male population of New Zealand. 1,093,211, 56.9 per cent, was actively engaged in some work at the time of the 1956 census, slightly more than 1 per cent, less than the proportion at the time of the 1951 census.

According to the report on the census findings issued by the Department of Statistics, the drop represented the larger increase recorded in the under 15 years age group compared with the smaller increase in the working age group of 15 to 64 years. This would, in normal circumstances, have meant a similar drop in the proportion per cent, of females actively engaged in work but, because of the substantial increase in the number of married women working, this proportion had slightly increased. In 1956 the number of actively en-| gaged females was 194,094 out of a total of 1,080,851. Over-all the proportion of persons actively engaged in 1956 was 37.5 per cent., as compared with 38 per cent, in 1951. Agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing claimed 19.72 per cent, of the working males, compared with slightly more than 22 per cent, in 1951, whereas the proportion engaged in commerce. 24 per cent.- showed a slight increase. Services claimed the majority of women workers, with commerce second.