THE COMING OF UNEMPLOYMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 97, 27 April 1939, Page 6

THE COMING OF UNEMPLOYMENT

N'EM I’Ll >Y M Ii.YT is coming. This fact is obvious, for with a restriction of Imports to practically a complete stoppage of many lines, there, will be a very heavy reduction in demand, and with the decline in demand there will be a slowing-down in employment. The first and most obvious victims will be those people who are engaged in the importing businesses. With a cessation of supplies coming forward, and with the. buying-up ol existing stocks by retailers, there will be no work for these people to do. Some of the employers may be able to live, on their capital for a while, but most of them will either go right out of business altogether and some will migrate. The two latter classes will reduce the number of people earning incomes on which income tax is paid. This will necessitate an increase in' taxation of those not now within the income-tax brackets, and most probably there will be a lowering of the limit of income-tax exemption. Many businesses now able to carry on will be unable to keep going- and pay the higher income lax. and this will reduce the number of employers, quite apart from importing operations- Those engaged in the retail trades will find many victims of the Government’s policy among their auks, and coincident with this will be a general rearrangement of retail establishments. Businesses now occupying large premises will seek to reduce their floor space, because the reduced turnover of sales will not permit them to carry their present overhead costs. The terrible part of the whole business is that the Dominion is heading- for a slump when it should have been enjoying comparative prosperity.