TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20511, 30 May 1938, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Unemployment World unemployment statistics for the first quarter of 1938, which have just been compiled by the International Labour Office, Geneva, 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 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 the 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; and 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 and employment statistics, officials state 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.