BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 May 1940, Page 5

BRITAIN’S UNEMPLOYED

A FURTHER DECREASE. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, May 6. The number of unemployed on the registers in Great Britain* fell below 1,000,000 during the month ended April I's, and it is the. lowest recorded since the end of 1920, when the extended insurance scheme came into operation. The total was 982,695, fewer by 671,695 than at the same ime last year. The nujnber of unemployed men on the register is now little more than half what it Was in April, 1939, while ( the • number of men temporarily laid off is little more than one-third of the figure at the earlier date. The figure for women shows a slight improvement on that of a year ago. Unemployment is now very low in metal good's manufacture for munition purposes, and in the engineering, motor vehicle, and aircraft industries. The rate in engineering and motor manufacture is not much above two per cent. \ In coal-mining, agriculture, and a number of textile trades, there has been a very substantial decrease, compared with a year ago. n Of individual industries, the distributive trades showed the greatest decrease, the total being 68,089 fewer than ' a year ago, partly due, as in other industries, to the replacement by unemployed of workers called up for active service.

Agricultural workers, during the same period, showed an unemployment fall of about 14,000.