BRITISH INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 190, 14 May 1928, Page 8

BRITISH INDUSTRY

LAST -YEAR’S PROBLEMS

NOT MERELY AFTERMATH

OF WAR

fUnited Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

London, May 11.

Last year was industrially the nearest approach to normal since the war, states the annual report of the Ministry of Labour. There is reason to believe that the problems of 1927 are no longer merely an aftermath of the war, but problems of a new industrial and commercial era.

The average rate of unemployment, 9.6, is the lowest since 1920. The three main causes are the substantial carry-over owing to the coal strike, which has increased the steadiness of industrial production, and also an improvement in the export trade in certain directions.

The number of working days lost as a result of industrial disputes is the lowest since the statistics were made first available forty years ago. It is feared that an appreciable number of miners will never regain their regular employment. An important feature of 19-7 was the interest taken by all sections of the community in industrial peace. Unemployment benefits paid totalled £36,747,420.