UNEMPLOYMENT

Evening Post, Issue 19, 23 January 1932, Page 12

UNEMPLOYMENT

AT VARIOUS TIMES /

YEAR BOOK FIGURES f — I

STATISTICS' TALE/

The section of the new Year j Book which deals with employment ai^ d unemployment has been rewrittei i and brought as nearly up to date as pr jssible. Statistical evidence as to the extent of unemployment in Kcw Zealand 'prior to 1892 is not available, but siu cc that date, from Labour Departmefnt and census returns, it has been per ssible to state with exactness the numli er of unemployed in the country.

Surveying briefly tmemplq yment in New Zealand since it bccart le settled, the article says: "In, generial, as was natural in a newly settled country, labour was more or less chronically in short supply during the eai ly years of settlement. Unemployment t, however, is, on the other hand, weJj known to have been acute in the mictdlo and late 'sixties, owing to the.paralysing effect of the Maori wars in the' North Island and to the collapse of the.- alluvial gold booms in Otago and Wentland. At no time, however, during ttye depression of the late 'sixties does ♦ here appear to have been any unemployment among females; the dearth off. domestic assistance having been a mf itter of comment in the House at the dljpths of the 1868 depression. With thr> inauguration at the beginning of thej 'seventies of the Vogel policy of prfblic works and assisted immigration , employment was available for a law re number of new arrivals; but, mafmly owing to the highly seasonal nature of the demand for labour in conno ction with the grain crops (at that tim/_> relatively more important in New Zf aaland than now), it was soon found necessary so to arrange passages that f eTI j- immigrants arrived in the colony during the winter months, and so to draft the programmes of public works eoj nstruction that additional labourers ,! were taken on at that season. At thh beginning of the 'eighties scarcity of funds for the prosecution of publfic works necessitated, along with. 'oe her considerations, the checking for.ia space of the stream of assisted immigrants. By 1883 the position had t naterially improved; but unemployment, once, , more became serious in the i late 'eighties and early 'nineties, ma;\nly owing to the fall in the prices that New Zealand's products (notaty ly wool) were fetching in the world's : markets, and to a further slackening of the rate of prosecution of public wiorks. During both of these periods the.' unemployment position was bo acute atf to bo responsible for a considerable cfxodus of the male population to AustraH.a and elsewhere." Census; data of. unemployment since then givol the following results:—

Wlß9l the creation of the Labour Department hot only assisted to deal with/ the problem of 'unemployment, but wa^ the means of providing useful stat; istieal data. The figures relating to Ic\io activities .of." the • unemployment' bui eaux of the Department do not show thf j full volume of unemployment, but fhlzy may be safely regarded as roughly symptomatic of the general unemploy--117 ent situation, rising when unemployment increases and falling when it decreases, though not necessarily in the j;ame mathematically rigorous propor-* f tion.

The following figures showing tho, numbers of the unemployed ass.isted,.to' employment from year to year ~&y. the* Labour Department exclude the operations^ of the "Women's Employment Branch of the Department, ■which was twice created (not under identical names) on t}iose : somewhat rare occasions when there was a dearth of employment for women, and twice discontinued as urgency passed: 1892 2593; 1893, 3874. By 1897 the total fell to 1718, but thereafter it rose again till it reached 3124 in 1901. In. the following year there was a big drop down to 1830, but the number steadily rose again until in 1909 it reached 10,391. There was a gradual fall between 1910 and 1918 (with a sudden rise again in 1915), the number assisted in 1918 being 2952. The following •eight years saw the number fluctuate between 3000 and 4000. . In 1927 began the rise which is still in evidence, as the following figures

REGISTERED UNEMPLOYED. The tables showing the number of registered unemployed since the beginning of 1930, those getting relief-work under No. 5 scheme, and the totally unemployed show the increase that has taken place during the last two years. At the beginning of January, "1930, there were 1,-565 registered une'mplovcd. By the middle of January, 1931, this total had increased to 14,875. By the end of September last year, which is as far as the figures in tho Year Book go, the total was 51,375. Of this total 37,206 -were getting relief -work under No. 5 scheme, 14,169 being totally unemployed.

An additional table divides the registered unemployed each week for the last two years among the four centres. A footnote to this table remarks:— "The number of registered unemployed has been higher in Auckland during 1930 and 1931 than in any of the other chief centres. Wellington was next in order in point of numbers registered, with one or two exceptions, until the beginning of April, 1931, since which month the numbers on tho register in Christchureh have been higher than the Wellington figures. The total of registered unemployed in Dunedin has been consistently lower than 'in any of the other three cities. Registrations in the secondary towns and through postoffices throughout the Dominion have increased enormously during the past few months." :

Comparative figures extracted from the table are:—'.

Totals ... 1,565 14,875 51,375 OCCUPATIONAL GROUPINGS.

As in previous years, labourers at the present time form the great bulk of the registered unemployed. "A significant indication of the depression in trade generally during the later months of 1930 and in 1931," says the Year Book, "is the increasing number of skilled tradesmen registered as unemployed. Normally there is very little incentive for skilled wqtkinea- .to .icgia,

Proportion ' per 1000 „ ■ ' : Unemployed male '?^ s"t Stales, wage-earners. 1*25/ ■•••• -. 14,759 100 "°1' 8,«r 48 190B 8,18!) 39 Mil- 7,152 SB »1« 5,920 26 1121 11,001 an M2f«. 10,694 34 IjABOTTR DEPARTMENT'S ACTIVITIES. /

iiuit: — 1927 1928 i929 1930 1931 ., 10,2G8 .......... 15,246 • • 16,363 21,890 30,223

J Auckland Wellington ... Dhristchur.ch. ... Dunedin Other districts Tan. 6, Jan. 19, Sep. 28, 1930. 1931. 1931. 353 3,495 7,185 257 2,233 5,221 470 2,056 5,245 135 828 3,013 350- C,263 30,711