UNEMPLOYMENT DECREASES IN BRITAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17878, 21 June 1926, Page 7

UNEMPLOYMENT DECREASES IN BRITAIN.

(Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, April 30. The Ministry of. Labour recently instituted an inquiry into the extent to which the unemployment figures issued weekly by the Ministry have been affected by the. greater restrictions on the receipt of unemployment benefit which came into operation last summer, and in particular to what extent the reduction in the weekly figures between July and December was due not to a real reduction in the numbers .unemployed but to the omission from the official figures of persons who have been cut off benefit by reason of the legislative and administrative changes introduced during the year 1925. The outcome of the inquiry is the conclusion that the stricter administration I has been to reduce the. number of peri sons on the register by about 10,000. In this connection it is well to note that the figure of unemployment for a week in March was 1,070,800, as compared with 1,219,000 at the corresponding date last year, a decrease of 148,000. The inference to be drawn from these totals in the light of the Ministry's conclusion is so obvious as to require no emphasis.