BIGGEST TRADES

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1934, Page 21 (Supplement)

BIGGEST TRADES

THE MILLION GROUPS. POOR AGRICULTURE. The occupation census of 1931 shows which trades take high rank in Britain. It is a picture of life and work worth careful study. The land, though employing over a million people, ranks far below many occupations in point of numbers. The biggest group is Personal Service, which accounts for 2,390.000 men and ■women. Next come Commerce and Finance, with 2,071,000. Transport ranks third with 1,635,000 persons. Other groups over a million are Agriculture with 1.172,000 and Metals with 1,446,000. Neither Mines nor Textiles reach a million. That Transport and Communication rank third is remarkable. We find 1,635,000 men and women engaged in moving us and Our goods about the country. The expenditure on movement is enormous and largely wasteful. The position of Agriculture is lamentable. In a population approaching 50,000,000, with nearly 19,000,000 persons working for gain, only about a million find a living on the land. The Building Trade counts only 692,000 workers against 795,486 clerks ahd typists.