UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22713, 28 October 1935, Page 11

UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES

NEW SYSTEM IN PUBLICATION EXPLAINED BY MINISTER (Special to Daily Times) WELLINGTON, October 27. “ Tho annual report to Parliament of the Unemployment Board announced the coming of a new system in the publication of unemployment figures,” said the Minister, Mr S. G. Smith, in a statement. “ The change is based on the obvious truth that men in full-time employment cannot be classed as unemployed, even though the industry in which they are engaged may be receiving stimulus from the Unemployment Fund. “ The past practice of the board in publishing tho statistics of unemployed has been to include with the registered unemployed all those in full-time employment on works which are aided by financial assistance from the Unemployment Fund,” the Minister continued. “ This practice developed primarily from the point at which the board brought into operation its subsidy schemes to stimulate full-time employment, the amount of the subsidy being allocated in strict proportion to the number of men engaged as a result from the unemployment register. For the convenience of accounting, and in order to give the public the fullest information about its activities, the beard retained the names of those workers on the register during the whole period for which the subsidy lasted. The men engaged under the Public Works Department on works subsidised by the board, although not retained on the register, were also still included in the published monthly returns. “ This method has had the effect of inflating the unemployment figures beyond the true position. For instance, wh u the peak figure was published in the monthly return of 76,245 for the j period ended October 28, 1933, the total j of those actually unemployed on the same I date was 43,605—2100 below the actual j peak figure, which was reached during the period ended August 5, 1933. “As in all other phases of unemployment relief there was, when the board commenced its operations, no internationally general practice in the nreparation of unemployment statistics in operation. During the past four years, however, certain definite principles have become established, and’ the New Zealand practice no longer follows the method of other Administrations which render returns to the International Labour Office. The value of New Zealand figures for the purposes of international comparison is therefore diminished, and this defect is particularly to New Zealand's disadvantage since it causes an exaggerated picture of unemployment in the Dominion to be given to the rest of the world. The new method will be an attempt to accord more closely ,/ith the new standard of practice by other countries. In future the board will treat as unemployed < only those in receipt of rationed relief work or sustenance, plus a comparatively small proportion whose registrations are “ live ” but who, for various reasons, are not actually receiving relief at the date of the return. “ The number of unemployed males registered in New Zealand at September 28, taken out under tho new method, is as follows: — Registered but not eligible for or not placed on relief .. .. 2,500 On part-time relief under scheme No. 5 .. 24,183 Receiving sustenance without work .. 15,517 Total unemployed .. .. 42,200 " On the same date financial assistance was being afforded to industry conditional on standard full-time employment i beiigiven to 18,144 men who, without! the stimulus provided by the subsidy, ! would in all probability have been de- < pendent upon relief. The figure of 18.144 | does not include any men engaged in | the various allied trades comprising the i building industry which is assisted by the board’s subsidy scheme. 1