The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1933. BRITAIN ROUNDING THE CORNER.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19571, 18 August 1933, Page 8

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1933. BRITAIN ROUNDING THE CORNER.

Nearly every day brings fresh evidence of the recovery of trade in the Homeland. Early in t)ie week, Tlic Daily Telegraph disclosed indications that Great Britain is emerging from the depression, obtained from close inquiry the journal had made in several districts. In Bradford, at Sheffield, in Lancashire, on the Tyneside, in the iron and steel trades of South Wales, all display signs, we are told, that the worst of the depression is over. “At London,” says the great English journal, “the number of ships using the port has increased, by more than 17 per cent., compared with a year ago. These deductions can be proved by a close examination of the unemployment figures. It is reported that in the southern countries of England, including the London area, the percentage of unemployment continues relatively low. Perhaps the better way to visualise the steady recovery in Britain is to contemplate the official figures dealing, not with unemployment but with employment. More persons were in employment in Great Britain at the end of June last than at any time since June, 1930. During June the estimated increase in the numbers of insured persons employed was 135,000. The increase since January exceeds half a million, the actual figure being 508,000. In comparison with the figures of a year ago there was an increase of 461,000. The following table shows the numbers in employment in each of the six months of this year: January 9,285,000 February 9,340,000 March 9,443,000 April 9,534,000 May 9,658,000 June 0,793,000 The figures for June are all the more gratifying because the normal experience is for employment in the sixth month of the year to remain about stationary or to decrease, asserts the Labour correspondent of The Times. This June there was, however, a decided improvement in industry and trade, and the numbers of the registered unemployed (insured and uninsured) declined by 144,71 to 2,438,108. Since January the decline in the total of the unemployed has been 464,957. The difference between this figure and the total increase in the numbers in employment is explained by the addition to the number* of the industrial population by new entrants into industry, principally school leavers. In comparison with a year ago the decline in ‘the number of the unemployed is 309,235. Nearly every industry shared in the improvement. There are 102 groups of trades in the Ministry of Labour's report, and in only 15 was there a change for the worse owing to the normal seasonal fluctuations of those trades. The motor-car industry was less brisk, and in consequence 3000 persons became unemployed; there was a considerable decline in the tailoring trade; which put 7700 persons out of work. In no other case was there an appreciable relapse. Even in the coalmining industry, owing to a curious statistical “slump” in May, which has since been retrieved, there appears to have been no actual improvement in June; in this case two months’ figures read together give a more accurate picture of the state of an industry which is certain to experience a reduction of demand in summertime. In the building industry there was a little change. There was marked improvement in employment in several of the staple industries. The increase of trade brought down the figures of the unemployed as follows: Genera) engineering; 10,000 Iron and steel trades 3,500 Miscellaneous metal manufacturing industries 6,500 Shipbuilding and ship repairing 2.700 Cotton and textile industry .. 11,000 Woollen industry 2,300 Hosiery trades 4,200 Jute trades 2,800 Good harvesting weather reduced the total unemployment figure by over 20,000, and most of these people were drawn from the unemployed not connected with the insured industries. They were wanted for the hay and the early fruit harvests, and the latter increased the activity of the foodcanning trades. In the London and South Eastern area the number of the unemployed declined by 36,841 during the month to 356,635, of whom 319,199 were wholly unemployed, 15,190 were temporarily stopped, and 22,246 were persons normally in casual employment. The total included 292,210 men (a decrease of 22,159), 5955 boys (decrease 2808), 53,892 women (decrease 9299), and 4578 girls (decrease 2575). Here, as in the country as a whole, improvement was spread over industry generally, the exception being tailoring. Almost everywhere there are healthy indications of Britain’s splendid recovery. Not only has the problem of unemployment in the City of London itself been brought within fhe narrow limits of 2.9 per cent, of the population, which includes the first upward tendency of shipping activity since 1930, but as the cable messages indicate this morning, there has been a steady if slow expansion in the value of exports, representing a substantial increase in the volume of Britain’s oversea trade.