BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 September 1934, Page 7

BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

THE LATEST RETURNS. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, September 3. Under the new Unemployment Act which becomes operative to-day, the age of entry into the unemployment insurance is brought down to the school-leaving age. Juveniles who obtain work, will be eligible for contribution, but they will not be entitled to draw unemployment benefit until they are 16. The Ministry of Labour estimates that at August 20, there were approximately 10,170,000 insured persons aged 16 to 64, in employment in Britain. This was 34,000 more than the month before and 376,000 more than a year before. The improvement in employment is most marked in the coal mining industry, and there is also some improvement in the building, and woollen worsted industries. In the shipbuilding, ship repairing industry, and in shipping service, the improvement recorded in the previous months continued. In the jute industry, following termination of local holidays, there was a substantial reduction in the numbers of registered as temporarily stopped.

On the other hand, there was a further decline in employment in tailoring, boot and shoe, cotton and motor vehicle industries. A slight setback also occurred in the iron and steel, pottery, and hosiery industries, and in distributive trades. At August 20, the numbers of unemployed persons on the registers of the employment exchanges in Britain were 1,598,338 wholly employed, 456,841 temporarily stopped, and 81,399 normally in casual employment, making a, total of 2,136,578. This was 10,318 more than the number on the registers on July 23, 1934, and 274,559 less than a year before, the net increase compared with a month ago, was accounted for by unemployed boys and girls who have just left school. The increase in the number of boys and girls registering for employment ordinarily occurs in the months of July and August, but the number registering this year being higher than usual, resulted in an increase of 31,088 in the number of unemployed boys and girls compared with the previous month. On the other hand, there was a decrease of 20,770 in the number of men and women on the registers compared with a month earlier. The total number of unemployed . comprised 1,692,319 men, 68,715 boys, 321,603 women, and 53,941 girls.