UNEMPLOYMENT

Evening Star, Issue 21011, 27 January 1932, Page 10

UNEMPLOYMENT

AT VARIOUS TIMES YEAR BOOK FIGURES , STATISTICS’ TALE The section of the new Year Book which deals with employment and unemployment has been rewritten and brought as nearly up to date as possible (says the Wellington ‘Post’). Statistical evidence as to the extent of unemployment in New Zealand prior to 1892 is not available, but since that date, from Labour Department and census returns, it has been possible to state with exactness the number of unemployed in the country. Surveying briefly unemployment in New Zealand since it became- settled, the article says: “In general, as was natural in a newly-settled country, labour was more or less chronically m short supply during the early years of settlement. Unemployment, however, is on the other hand, well known to have been acute in the middle 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 Westland. At no time, however, during the depression of the late ’sixties does there appear to have been any unemployment among females; the dearth of domestic assistance having been a matter of comment in the House at the depths of the 1868 depression. With the inauguration at the beginning of the ’seventies of the Vogel policy of public works and assisted immigration, employment was available for a large number of now arrivals j but, mainly owing to the highly seasonal nature of the demand for labour in connection with the grain crops (at that time relatively more important in New. Zealand than now), it was soon found necessary so to arrange passages that few immigrants arrived in the colony during the winter months, and so ho draft' the programmes of public works construction that additional labourers were taken on at that season. At the beginning of the ’eighties scarcity of funds for the prosecution of public works necessitated, along with other considerations, the checking for a space of the stream of assisted immigrants. By 1883 the position had materially improved; but unemployment once more became serious in the late 'eighties and early ’nineties, mainly owing to the fall in the prices that New Zealand’s products (notably wool )were fetching in the world’s markets, and to a further slackening of the rate of prosecution of public works. , During both of these periods the unemployment position was so acute as to be responsible for a considerable exodus of the male population to Australia and elsewhere.’’ Census data of unemployment since then give the following results:—

LABOUR DEPARTMENT’S ACTIVITIES. In 1891 the creation of the Labour Department not only assisted to deal with the problem of unemployment, but was the means of providing useful statistical data. The figures relating to the activities of the unemployment bureaux of the department do not show the full volume of unemployment, but they may be safely regarded as roughly symptomatic of the general unemployment situation, rising when unemployment increases and falling when it decreases, though not necessarily in the same mathematically rigorous proportion.

The following figures showing the numbers of the unemployed assisted to employment from year to year by the Labour Department exclude the operations of tho Women’s Employment Branch of the department, which was twice created (not ' under identical names) on those somewhat rare occasions when there was a dearth of employment for women, and twice discontinued as urgency .passed:—lß92, 2,593; 1893, 3,874. By 1897 the total foil to 1,718, but thereafter it rose again till it reached 3,124 in 1901. In tho following year there was a big drop down to 1,830, but tho 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 2,952. The following eight years saw the number fluctuate between 3,000 and 4,000. In 1927 began the rise which is still in evidence, ns the following figures show:— 1927 10,268 1928 15,246 1929 16,363 1930 21,890 1931 30,223 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 tho last two years.

be a break away from custom. An alternative to the scheme propounded would be to require the head master of a top grade school to take a class with the help of a probationary assistant and to relieve him of one of his higher-paid male assistants now on the staff. This, however, would not produce the same economy, for another position would have to bo found for the teacher so displaced. ALTERNATIVE TO CUTS. “ The scheme which I have put forward is an unpalatable one,” continued this educationist, “ for every assistant or head master of a small school is living in hopes of promotion, and with my proposal he would see these hopes severely restricted. This would be better than reductions of staffs or salaries, which seem inevitable if the education vote is to bo smaller. It semes to me to bo a practical way of securing definite economies, while safeguarding efficiency. It would not d’sorganise schools with changes of staffs in the manner which the proposed system of rationing probationary assistants is bound to do. , “ Moreover, the _ scheme could be brought into operation by the Education Department through the various boards without the necessity of special legislation. It could be brought into effect by March 31 of this year. By that time the various head masters would have completed ono of the most important duties. They would have so organised the school that it would work effic : c-itlv throughout the year. The working of the scheme would be facilitated, too, if tho department curtailed its multitudinous demands for returns and figures, which occupy no small part iof a head master’s time.”

At the beginning of January, 1930, there were 1,565 _ registered unemployed. By the middle of January, 1931, this total had increased to 14,875. By the end of September last year, which is as far ns the figures in the 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 the register in Christchurch have been higher than the Wellington 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 Post Offices throughout the dominion have increased enormously during the past few months.” Comparative figures extracted from the table are:—'

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 workmen to register at the labour bureaus, since the vast majority of placements through the bureaux are on unskilled work. The marked increase in registrations by skilled tradesmen in 1931 is evidence of a willingness on the part of such workers to take any work that is offering, whether skilled or dtherwise.” An analysis of 51,018 cases at the end of last September gave the following occupational groupings:Building 5,780 Engineering 2,107 Other skilled work 5,8£5 Labourers 25,149 farm hands 2,670 Hotel workers and cooks 76' Others ... 8,668 1

Proportion V per 1,000 Unemployed male .Males, wage-earners. 1890 14,759 100 1901 8,467 48 1906 8,189 39 1911 7,152 30 1916 5,920 26 1921 11,061 39 1926 10,694 34

Jan. 6. Jan. 19. Sep. 28. 1930. 1931. 1931. Auckland ... 353 3,495 7,185 Wellington 267 2,233 , 5,221 Christchurch 470 2,056 5,245 Dunedin ... 135 828 3,013 Other districts 350 6,263 30,711 ■in r * i.i i ■ ■ — Totals .. 1,565 14,875 51,375