H.—lla.

As the placement of female workers did not become a responsibility of the Placement Service until the Social Security Act became operative in April, 1939, no official placements of females are recorded before that time. Actually statistics relating to positions filled by females through the Placement Service date from October of 1939. Female placements effected from that date up to 31st March of the current year total 1,284, as follows : — Female placements (permanent, temporary, and casual), Ist October to 31st December, 1939 .. .. .. .. .. .. 728 Female placements (permanent, temporary, and casual), Ist January to 31st March, 1940 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 556 Total .. .. .. .. .. 1,284 Table VII of the Appendix gives the provincial distribution of positions filled by male enrolees during the periods Ist January to 31st December, 1939, and Ist January to 31st March, 1940. Table VIII shows according to provinces the number of new enrolments of males during the period Ist January to 30th September, 1939. This table also classifies the reasons for these enrolments. Curtailment of statistical matter collected by the Placement Service on the outbreak of war renders it impossible to give similar data for the period Ist October, 1939, to 31st March, 1940. Table IX of the Appendix reveals the movement of male labour within industries as recorded by Placement Service enrolments and placements during the period Ist January, 1939, to 30th September, 1939. This data also is not available in respect of the period Ist October, 1939, to 31st March, 1940, and the reason is again the curtailment of statistical returns which took place when the war began. Table X provides an analysis of the industrial ability, place of origin, and age-groups of all male immigrants who enrolled with the Placement Service for employment during the period between Ist January to 30th September, 1939. Here, too, particulars of immigrants are not available subsequent to 30th September. However, immigration practically ceased with the commencement of hostilities, so the number of immigrant enrolments not recorded during the period Ist October, 1939, to 31st March, 1940, must have been very small. During the calendar year 1939 the total number of placements, 32,818, was nearly 7,000 fewer than the positions filled during the previous year. On the basis of average monthly placements the figures show that there was a decline in placements during 1939 over the previous year of approximately 565 per month. This decline continued to be evinced in the placement figures for the first three months of the current year. The decline in positions filled is especially large in the casual placement figures, but in the number of permanent and temporary positions filled the falling-off has been much less noticeable. Enrolments (exclusive of re-enrolments) from Ist January to 30th September, 1939, standing at 70,880 exceed slightly the enrolments (69,415) recorded during the eleven months ended the 31st December, 1939. It would appear, taking the diminished monthly placements and the increased enrolments into account, that there has been a certain contraction in the Dominion's labour market. A noteworthy evidence in this direction has been the large comparative increase in enrolments in Industrial Group No. 35, Commerce (see Table IX), where enrolments have during the nine months ended 30th September, 1939, approximated very closely to the enrolments in the same group during the eleven months 31st January to 31st December, 1939. This apparent shrinkage in the labour market, however, needs to be viewed with reservation, for, obviously, whereas increasing unemployment will be reflected in increased Placement Service enrolments, increasing opportunities for self-placement would not be taken account of in Placement statistics. Nevertheless, some slight real tendency to contraction of the labour market during the year 1939 appears evident. As can be seen from Table IX of the Appendix, there have been important movements of labour within the various industrial groups during the period Ist January, 1939, to 30th September, 1939. Total enrolments for the first time during the period from all of the industrial groups are 78,719. The additional enrolments of approximately 8,000 on the enrolments during the same period shown in Table VIII are explained by the fact that the latter represents the numbers of persons enrolled during the period, while the former shows the number of enrolments from all industrial groups during the same period. Obviously, the former number will be inflated by the enrolments of persons placed in casual employment in several different industries during the same nine months. In other words, one person who has been referred to casual or temporary employment of several different kinds will show as a new enrolment in each of the industrial groups from which he has just left. Consulting Table IX, it may be seen that certain important industries reveal during the nine months ended 30th September a considerable excess of enrolments and re-enrolments over placements. For instance, Group 2b (Dairy, Pig, and Cattle Farming) shows enrolments and re-enrolments at 6,153, but total placements during the same period are only 2,310. This points to a definite tendency on the part of dairy-farmers to curtail the number of farm hands after the flush of the season This tendency is clearly not unassociated with the perennial difficulty met by dairy-farmers in obtaining experienced dairy-farm labour. In Group 8 (Meat, Freezing and Preserving) there is a large disparity between the enrolments and re-enrolments and actual placements—the former 5,100 and the latter 417. The purely seasonal nature of the bulk of the work performed in this industry explains this disparity.

2—H. 11 A.

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