DETERIORATION SEEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 10, 13 January 1942, Page 5

DETERIORATION SEEN

NAZI LABOUR MARKET

LONDON, January 11. "The Times" correspondent on the German frontier says that the deterioration of the German labour market as a result of the prolonged war effort is reflected in the latest official figures, from which it can be deduced that at least 1,500,000 workers have been withdrawn from industry in 1941 for active military service. Before the war 36,000,000 workers were gainfully employed in the Reich, but there were only 24,800,000 at the end of last year. This includes more than 2,000,000 workers imported from Italy, France, Belgium, Poland, Holland, and the Balkans, and excludes about 1,600,000 working prisoners of war, of whom half are engaged in farming. The average efficiency of workers fell in a marked degree last year. The total number of workers employed at the end of last year included 700,000 unskilled boys and girls just from school. The correspondent adds that the German medical Press frequently emphasised that the workers' general lack of efficiency is caused, firstly, by overfatigue because the average working week is now 56 hours and often longer, compared with a 48-hour week before the war, and, secondly, by several years of war diet, intensified by the blockade. A leader of the German medical practitioners recently stated that there j was a marked drop in efficiency among j men after the age of 45, and women after 30. The German Press, commenting on the latest statistics, mentions that all employable retired workers between the ages of 60 and 70 have been recalled to work.