More Registered Unemployed

Southland Times, Issue 22998, 18 September 1936, Page 6

More Registered Unemployed

According to figures printed to-day, “the number of males wholly or partly dependent on the Employment Promotion Fund” was reduced from 54,003 on August 1 to 50,847 on August 29. The number at August 29 is given as 9959 below the number at the corresponding date last year. The Government no doubt takes satisfaction in these figures; but an examination of the numbers of registered unemployed reveals a very different state of affairs, of which the public should be made aware. The following figures, taken from the latest issue of the Abstract of Statistics, show the numbers of “registered unemployed males” at fourweekly periods during the last year:— Total 1935. unemployed. July 6 41,499 August 3 42,631 August 31 42,745 September 28 42,200 October 26 39,681 November 23 35,979 December 21 35,653 1936. January 18 34,777 February 15 32,384 March 14 32,019 April 11 33,277 May 9 35,270 June 6 39,038 July 4 42,939 August 1 45,045 August 29 (taking the similar figures from the statement printed to-day) 44,213

These figures show the numbers of “registered unemployed males.” The figures which are now published every four weeks by the Minister of Labour, Mr Armstrong, include all men who are in any way a charge on the unemployment fund. They may, in other words, include men who have never been unemployed nor registered as unemployed; as they would have done, for instance, while the building subsidy scheme was in operation. It is hard to see why “the number of males wholly or partly dependent on the Employment Promotion Fund” should be regarded as a more significant figure than the number of males genuinely registered as unemployed; but Mr Armstrong takes the first number and not thfe second for his official pronouncements, and shows substantial reductions. Taking the Government Statistician’s figures, the number of registered unemployed was at August 1, 1936, higher than it has been for at least two years. By the same authority, the number of registered unemployed at August 29 is only 832 lower than the number at August 1, and 1468 higher than the number at August 31, 1935. In a debate in the House of Representatives on August 20 last Mr Armstrong said it was “gross misrepresentation” to say that unemployment had increased. Well, the Government Statistician says so in what are plainly more reliable and significant figures than Mr Armstrong’s. His figures—quoted above —show that the number of registered unemployed has since July—in the Labour Government’s first year of office—exceeded the number at the same period of last year. Moreover, not only are there more registered unemployed, but the number of men receiving sustenance without work has practically doubled since Labour took office. Extravagant promises that work would be found for all were made to the electorate last year; but the Government’s record so far in dealing with unemployment is a record of failure.