Britain’s Unemployed

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28794, 15 January 1959, Page 8

Britain’s Unemployed

Unemployment in Britain has risen from the 1957 average of 1.4 per cent, of the total labour force to about 2.5 per cent.; and the Minister of Labour (Mr Macleod) recently predicted that, before it falls again, there will be a maximum of about 625,000 men and women unable to find work. It has been estimated that about 250.000 of these will have been unemployed for more than eight weeks. The figures are far from alarming. Indeed, they indicate how little Britain has been affected by the American recession (now slowly ending), and how well British industries have withstood cuts in export buying by the primary-producing Dominions. British retail trade increased again in November; and, somewhat unexpectedly, exports to all markets, including those in the sterling area, are rising. Of the increase in unemployment last year, half resulted from reduced exports. On December 17, the House of Commons debated unemployment. Government and Opposition spokesmen agreed that nowhere were there signs of a return to the gloom of the 1930’5. However, with the approach of a general election, both Conservatives and Socialists are giving increased attention to unemployment

problems, though neither have yet evolved a panacea. Many persons have lost their jobs through normally healthy adjustments in industry—the closing of uneconomic factories, the switching of production to more saleable manufactures, the introduction of new processes. Old skills may be redundant; and their possessors may be incapable of acquiring new. Most Ught industries are recovering sharply from the reverses of last year, and unemployment tends to be concentrated in the heavy and basic industries, in centres where memories of the slump are most alive. Certain parts of Britain are peculiarly prone to recession. In spite of all the efforts of governments since the Second World War, the unemployment ratio in the old “ depressed areas ” —now renamed “ development areas ” —has remained persistently above the national average, in bad times and good. As the national average of unemployed has risen in recent months, the figures for Scotland, Wales, and parts of Northern England have gone up more than proportionately. In some areas unemployment is beginning to be a serious social problem. The worst affected region remains Northern Ireland. It would be wrong to argue from this that the British economy is fundamentally sick. Much of the current unemployment In Wales and Scotland stems from

economic progress and the decline of archaic industries. Examples of the latter are the tinplate handmills of Southwest Wales, slate quarrying in North Wales, and jute, shale oil. and ironfounding industries in Scotland. During the last year, about 300 Lancashire’ cotton mills have been closed and their machinery sold for scrap. The decline of the cotton industry is especially tragic for the older workers, many of them with long family associations with particular mills. For lack of alternative skills, many of these men and women may now be forced into premature retirement. The remedies must be psychological as well as economic. In the economic field, the Ministry of Labour has undertaken resettlement and temporary transfer schemes for workers. In November, the Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) announced the Government’s long-awaited decision on the establishment of a fourth steel strip mill: for political rather than strictly economic reasons, the project is to be divided between South Wales and Scotland. Again for political reasons, the Government is forced to acquiesce in uneconomic practices to hold at bay the problem of those whom the “ Manchester “Guardian” calls the “hidden “ workless ” —many thousands of men retained in the collieries to produce coal for which there is no prospect of a market. In the docks, there is no work for about 15 per cent, of the registered labour force; but, through an increase in the levy for the dock labour scheme, all are being kept on the payroll. The Government’s biggest psychological problems are to promote the establishment of new industries in depressed areas, and to persuade redundant workers to move out of such areas into expanding ones. A good practical way of attracting industrialists is by improving transport facilities; but this can be a slow process. Even more difficult is the transfer of workers from areas like South-west Wales where home ownership is widespread and property values are declining. In addition, transfers often involve breaking up families. Opinion seems to be growing in favour of increasing the unemployment benefit to a figure much nearer the average industrial wage. In this way, hardships might be avoided until more is known of the effects of Britain’s promised industrial expansion.