UNEMPLOYMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 June 1938, Page 12

UNEMPLOYMENT

STATISTICS FOR VARIOUS COUNTRIES. TREND FOR MOST PART SEASONAL. GENEVA, April. World unemployment statistics for the first quarter of 1938, which have just been compiled by the International Labour Office, show a decline in a majority of countries as compared with the corresponding quarter of last year. However, increases occurred in Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, and the United States.

Compared with the last quarter of 1937, the statistics show that unemployment rose in all countries except Australia. But officials explain that this trend was for the most part seasonal.

Index numbers of employment, compiled at the same time a by the International Labour Office show that, compared with the corresponding quarter of last year employment increased in all countries except the United States and Belgium. In the first quarter of 1937, the number of persons in employment in the United States equalled 92.2 per cent of the 1929 total; while in the first quarter of 1938, the number- declined to 78.8 per cent of the 1929 figure. This was a drop of 13.4 per cent, The decline in Belgium from thp first quarter of 1937 to the first quarter of 1938 was only 0.4 per cent. Eleven countries, the index numbers disclose, now have more persons in employment than in 1929. These are: Great Britain, with 110.2 of her 1929 figure; Hungary, with 108.1; Latvia, 121.1; Yugoslavia, 117.3; Estonia,- 139.2; Finland, 109.2; Italy, 109.3; Japan, 135.3; Norway, 109.0; South Africa, 131.8; Sweden, 117.3.

Figures for other countries are: Belgium, 87.2; Czechoslovakia, 79.5; the Netherlands, 74.6; Canada, 92.6; France, 81.1; Luxemburg, 75.6; Poland, 84.5, and Switzerland, 78.6.

In making public the unemployment apd . employment statistics, officials cautioned that since the method of compiling them as well as the dates for which latest figures are available, differ from country to country, they cannot be accepted as accurate measurements but only as showing trends.

The following table gives a comparison of the volume of unemployment in the various countries during the first quarter of 1938 with the corresponding quarter of 1937 and the last quarter of that year. (An asterisk denotes a decrease and a dagger an increase) :—

1st 1st Austria Quarter Quarter 1937. 1938. 316,050 302,263 Difference. *13,787 Australia .... 46,863 37,558 *9,305 Belgium .... 131,565 136,298 f4,733 Bulgaria .... 10,964 19,062 18,098 Canada 27,379 27,530 tl51 Chile 5,516 3,137 *2,379 Czechoslovakia 198,492 177,972 *20,520 Danzig 16,724 8,580 *8,144 Denmark '.. 133,795 127,222 *6,573 Estonia 2,064 1,798 *266 Finland .... 5,383 4,544 *839 France 441,207 444,376 t3,169 Germany 1,853,460 1,051,745 *801,715 Gt Britain & N. Ireland 1,624,765 1,807,517 tl82,752 Hungary .... 50,863 46,132 *4',731 Ireland 91,680 104,829 113,149 Japan 322,948 281,215 *41,733 Latvia 6,358 4,123 *2,235 Netherlands 466,242 439,278 *26,964 Norway .... 34,440 35,311 +871 Rumania .... 9,549 6,343 *3,206 Sweden .... 33,509 21,723 til,786 Switerland 87,120 81,040 *6,080 United States .... 9,241,000 10,973,000 * 1,723,000