LABOUR AND TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1064, 1 March 1911, Page 4

LABOUR AND TRADE.

One of the pleasing features of the trade recovery in Britain has been the improvement shown in the lot of labour. From 1901 to 1905 there had been a substantial reduction in the amount paid away in wages consequent on the cutting down of working time. In 1906 there was a recovery which continued until about the middle of 1907 when the industrial world began to feel the effects of the trouble in America, and in 1908 and 1909 this and the general depression in trade made serious inroads on the wages list of the British working man. In 1910 the revival of trade brought about the inevitable stimulus to industrial activity and consequent increased employment. Tho Labour Gazette published some interesting figures dealing with the subject of employment and wages. The net gain in wages for the year 1910 was equal to £13,900 per week, which, was accompanied, by the net reduction in working time of 38,000 hours per week, showing that while more wages were paid' they were earned by working fewer hours. The fluctuations in wages earned whiclr have taken place-during the past decade can be readily seen from the following table: Net charge in wages per week. Increase. Decrease. A £ 1901 ............... - • 76,G00 WO2 - 72,000 ' 1903 — 38,300 li'Ol ■■ . — . 39,200 1905 — 2 200 190G ' 57,900 — 1907 200,900 — 1903 - 59,200 190.1 - 68,900 1910 13,900 — Totals 272,700 " 357,000 Net reduction, ,£81,300.

If a longer period is taken, from 1896, the reduction of £84,300 is converted into an increase of £353,000; that is to say the amount paid in wages in 1910 was £353,000 per week more than'was paid in 1896. Amongst the statistics published in the Labour Gazette are some very remarkable figures relating to unemployment and strikes. The monthly average of members of TradesUnions returned as unemployed in 1910 was 4.7 per cent; a decline of 3 per cent' as compared with tho preceding year, when it was 7.7 per cent. In 1908-the average was 7.8 per cent, and.in 1007 it was down to 3.6 per cent, beiag even lower in '906, namely, 3.6 per cent. The averago of 4.7 in 1910 is stated to have been in a measure due to the large number oi stoppages, the result of industrial: disputes. In the circumstances it is ■ surprising that the figures were not much higher. No fewer than 406 disputes causing discontinuance of work began in 1910, involving 508,500 workpeople. This enormous number was supplemented by 26 disputes carried over from 1.909. The aggregate duration , of all stoppages reached the total of a little under ten million working days—this ' astounding amount of time was wasted through disputes of one kind and another, chiefly in the mining industry and the engineering and ship-building trades. The time thus lost is only about the averago of the past ten years, but the number of workmen affected is said to have been the highest since 1893 and represented about 5 per cent of the total industrial population of the United Kingdom. Looking ahead the general opinion appears to be that the prospects for the current year are very much more hopeful than they were in 1910. While a certain amount of loss from industrial disputes is inevitable signs are not wanting that the widespread unrest which prevailed has largely disappeared in quarters where it threatened most serious consequences, this happy result being due to the differences being amicably adjusted.