INDUSTRY IN BRITAIN

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21184, 6 August 1940, Page 5

INDUSTRY IN BRITAIN

INCREASE IN UNEMPLOYED STATEMENT BY MINISTRY TRANSFER OF WORKERS (Official Wireless) (Received August 6, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, August 5 The increase of 60,431 last month in the number of unemployed in Britain announced by the Ministry of Labour today has been foreshadowed in public statements by the Minister of Labour, Mr E. Bevin, suggesting that such a result was likely as a temporary effect cf the deliberate plan of the Government to decrease home consumption and concentrate the displaced labour on the production of essential goods.

The transfer of workers from nonessential to essential production, Mr Bevin claimed, would need time to carry out before the balance of employed labour could be regained. The Ministry of Labour and the Board of Trade are working together as closely as possible to arrange for the absorption of the displaced workers in munition making and the export trade, with minimum hardship.

The increase in unemployment is also partly due to the loss of coal markets on the continent of Europe. The figures show that the increase is particularly noticeable among women employed in the textile and clothing industries and among those temporarily employed in the coal industry, in which the actual number unemployed is still as a whole very low. Over all industries the number of wholly unemployed men was fewer by over 46,000. The total figure of unemployed on July 15 was 827,266, against 766,835 a month ago.