MORE WORK AVAILABLE

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 326, 20 January 1932, Page 1

MORE WORK AVAILABLE

British Unemployment is Reviewed. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyrigh t. (Received January 20, noon;) RUGBY, January 19. The state of employment in 1931 is officially reviewed in a Ministry of Labour gazette published yesterday. There was no marked improvement in mployment until the last quarter of the year, but there was not, as in the preceding year, a steady increase month by month in the numbers unemployed. The steady and. general -decline during 1930 received a check last February, arfd was followed by a slight improvement during the next three months, which affected chiefly the seasonal trades and a number of • textile industries, including the cotton and woollen and worsted industry. A further decline, however, began in June and continued until the end of September following the suspension of the gold standard. An improvement was recorded at the beginning of October, which continued until the end of the year, and had an influence on almost every industry except those such as building and contracting, which normally experience slacknes sin the winter. It is estimated that the number of insured work people in employment in Britain rose from 9,215,000 in January to 9,516,000 in May, but after some fluctuation fell 'to 9,326,000 in September. By December, however, it was 9,593,000, compared with 9,475,000 in December of the previous year. It is stated that the recent legislative changes had not affected by the end of December the number of insured persons recorded in the unemployed percentage. The rates of unemployment among insured persons fall in percentage from 22.6 in Sptember to 20.9 in December, and represent, therefore, the measure of real improvement in employment.