UNEMPLOYED IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28821, 16 February 1959, Page 11

UNEMPLOYED IN BRITAIN

620,000 Workers Without Jobs (N.Z Press Association-Copyright) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, February K For the first time in 20 years, unemployment has become a major political issue in Britain with 620,900 workers out of jobs. Politicians believe the Conservatives’ chances of retaining power in the General Election forecast for autumn may hinge on the Government’s ability to cut this figure well t?ack within the next six months. The present unemployment situation is of small proportions compared with the pre-jvar slump. At one stage at that time nearly 3,000,000 people were out of work. In contrast with that protracted depression the present position is believed to be largely of a temporary character. Both Conservative and Socialist politicians expect to see a gradual fall from the unusually high seasonal peak last month, which was 57 per cent. •bbVe the level of a year ago. But the Labour Party’s supporters claim the Government is not grappling quickly enough with the situation, which they consider is at present caused in part by a delayed reaction from last year’s official credit squeeze, which was applied to halt inflation. Government supporters, on the other hand, claim that the credit squeeze was an inescapable medicine for the nation’s economic ills at the time, and that the country is beginning to feel the benefit. Concurrent with a recent big improvement in the external economy—a better balance of trade with the world and increased gold reserves—the Government relaxed the and the brake on domestic spending.

Fully aware of the .threat the present situation offers to its prestige, the Government has been taking various measures on a national and local level to stimulate employment. Some of these steps, like the gradual reduction of the bank rate from 7 to 4 per cent, and the ending of the credit squeeze, have already been taken. Other moves have been - directed to bring work to the jobless in the industrial “black spots”—Northern Ireland, Scotland, north-west England. parts of Lancashire, 'South Wales and North Wales—which, incidentally, include some of the Government’s narrowly-held Parliamentary seats. '