UNEMPLOYMENT RETURN

Taranaki Daily News, 28 October 1935, Page 4

UNEMPLOYMENT RETURN

CHANGE IN COMPUTATION FULL-TIME WORKERS OMITTED. MEN IN SUBSIDISED INDUSTRIES. TRUER POSITION NOW REVEALED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. A new system in the publication of unemployment figures in the Dominion is announced by the Minister of Employment, the Hon. S. G. Smith. The change is based, he says, 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 a stimulus from the unemployment fund. Hitherto for convenience of accounting and in order to give the public full information about its activities the board retained the names of these workers on the register during the whole period for which the subsidy lasted. Men engaged under the Public Works Department on works subsidised by the Unemployment Board, although not retained on the register, were also still included in the published monthly returns. The method has had the effect of inflating unemployment figures beyond the true position. When the board commenced operations no internationally general practice in the preparation of unemployment statistics was in operation. During the past four years certain 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 the New Zealand figures for 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.

In future the board will treat as unemployed only those in receipt of rationed relief work or sustenance, plus a comparative small proportion whose registrations are “live” but who are not receiving relief at the date of the return. The number of unemployed males registered • in New Zealand at September 28, taken out under the new method, is: Registered but not elegibile for, or not placed on, relief, 2500; on part-time relief under scheme No. 5, 24,183; receiving sustenance without work, 15,517; total unemployed, 42,000. On the same date financial assistance was being afforded to the industry conditional on standard full-time employment being given to 18,144 men, who without the stimulus provided by the subsidy would in all probability have been dependent upon relief. The figure of 18,144 does' not include men engaged .in the various allied trades comprising the building industry, who are assisted by the board’s subsidy scheme. September marks the peak of each year in New Zealand, and it is expected that the tendency for the next six months will be for an improvement.