HUGE LOSS TO WORKERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1071, 8 September 1930, Page 1

HUGE LOSS TO WORKERS

OVER 8,000,000 DAYS’ TIME IN A YEAR VALUED AT £5,000,000 Approximately 8,000,000 days’ working time was lost by workers in New Zealand during the 12 months immediately preceding the census taken on April 20, 1926. This is revealed in a survey of “unemployment from sickness and other causes,” just issued by the Census and Statistics Office, which compiled the data from answers received to a questionnaire accompanying individual schedules. If the same ratio were applied to all cases of unemployment, the total loss of working time would exceed 20,000,000 days. Accepting £205 a year for males and £IOO a year for females as the average incomes for th£ purposes of assessment, the value er time losF’exceeded £5,000,000 if it was limited to cases where lost time or its absence was specified, or over £12,500,000 if the same ratio was applied to all persons. VALUE OF TIME The value of working time unavoidably lost either through sickness, injury or unemployment, therefore falls between the minimum of £5,000,000 and the maximum of £12,500,000. In 1925-26 specified cases of time wastage totalled £4,746,000 for males and £337,000 for females.

The total of .over £5,000,000 is, roughly, evenly divided between sickness or injury on one hand and inability to find employment on the other.