UNEMPLOYMENT IN BRITAIN.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20176, 3 March 1931, Page 15

UNEMPLOYMENT IN BRITAIN.

HIGHEST FOR TEN YEARS. (TBOM OUR ow* combspoudbst.) LONDON, January 20. f Whereas in 1929 tlie numbcr of insured persons in work (10,207,000) was the highest average figure recorded, last year the average fell to the lowest (9,764,000) Binee the prolonged stoppage in the coal industry in 1920. The average rate of unemployment advanced during the year from 10.4 per cent, to 16.1 per cent. The' only time during the past decade when last yoat-%'average was exceeded was in when the dispute in the coalnjdftiifg industry resulted in the , ayefage Teaching 17 per' cent., though those engaged .in the dispute "tiere not included.* On December 22nd last, the' percentage rate o£ unemployment among, insured persons in Britain and Northern Ireland was 20.2, compared' with 11.1' on December 16th, 1929. ■ The Ministry of "Labour Gazette" Vtates that the figures of unemployment steadily increased throughout, the yea': and \in December were higher than at any (Hate in the period of ton years for which vcomparable statistics were Available. Ik, the cotton industry the percentage rate of unemployed from 14.4 Sat December 16th, 1929, to 47.4 at December 22nd,-1930. Tlie textile trades, As a whole, accounted for, an-increase of in the numbers unemployed, or 1 27.9 per cent.'' ,o£ the total increase in industries taken together. .In coal i&jning, iron and steel manufacture, engineering, shipbuilding." and ship repairing, the j aggregate Ancrease in the numbors unemployed amounted to 286,918, or 24.8 / per eent. of the total increase, From 57 per cent, above pre-war on. January Ist, 1930, retail food prices fell to 38 per cent, on January Ist, 1931. The total number ,'of people involved, directly or * n " directly, in trade disputes causing stoppages of work was about 309,400 compared Tpith' 583,800 in the previous year. • > • ~

' There is ifi .Asia Minor a ■ river which, alter many twists and turns, finds its way to the Aegean Sea. river .is called the Meander. It gsv® the world the word "meander, to ' wander.