EMPLOYMENT IN BRITAIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20050, 23 September 1939, Page 4

EMPLOYMENT IN BRITAIN

DISLOCATION BY WAR ADJUSTMENTS NECESSARY (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 11 a.m RUGBY, Sept. 22. The Ministry of Labour has issued a preliminary statement on the level of unemployment at September 11. The outbreak of war created new demands for labour but at the same time caused a dislocation affecting the employment of working people in many directions. In the case of male workers, however, the net effect to September 11 Was a reduction of about 76,000 in che number registered as unemployed, compared with August. The number of females on the (registers was swollen by the addition of many evacuated women and of others offering their services, as well as by discharges from employment, and increased by about 175,000.

Over the greater part of the country there was a reduction in unemployment among males and a roughly equivalent increase in the number of females on the (registers. In London and the south-eastern counties there was an increase both among males and females.

The industries mainly contributing to the increase in the numbers of unemployed included hotel and boardinghouse service, distributive trades, entertainers, and sports industries, and the fishing trade. In some districts, a decline in employment was also reported in the furniture trades, tailoring, dressmaking, and millinery trades, some of the textile industries, motor-car manufacture, and dock services. On the other hand, improvements in employment were (reported in the coal-mining industry, iron and steel manufacture, and the engineering and shipbuilding industries.

The number of persons receiving assistance from the Employment Assistance Board under the permanent scheme on September 15 was about 375,000, or some 80,000 fewer than in August, In addition, between 02,000 and 63,000 persons wejre being assisted by the board under the emergency scheme for the relief of distress due to the war, and of these about 46,000 were evacuated persons. The Ministry adds that whil<* a complete adjustment of industry to war conditions is bound to take some little time, it .may be anticipated that any person thrown out of work will soon find fresh opportunities, for the momentum of national effort will cal) upon all the resources of our man and woman power.