§ MR. PIKE PEASE (Darlington)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the statistics on page 7 of Diplomatic and Consular Reports [Cd. 4035], United States, Trade of New York, June, 1908, apply to the whole of the United States or to the State of New York alone, and are there any official figures of unemployment for the United States generally; and will he state whether the Returns of unemployment in the Labour Gazette include only those members of trades unions who have benefit funds from which to draw and who are idle through lack of work, and do those Returns exclude those trade unionists who have no unemployed benefit funds or are idle from other causes than lack of work, and also do not take into account unskilled workmen or men in casual employment.
(Answered by Sir H. Kearley.) The statistics on page 7 of the Consular Report mentioned by the hon. Member relate to the City of New York only. 643 There are no official statistics of unemployment for the United States as a whole. The Returns of unemployed members of trade unions in the Labour Gazette are necessarily based on the information furnished by the trade unions paying unemployed benefit and relate only to such unions. They include those returned as idle from lack of work whether in receipt of benefit or not, and, in addition, those whose employment is temporarily suspended owing to bad weather, fires, failures, breakdowns, and similar causes, but not those who are directly affected by labour disputes or who are idle through sickness or accident. The Returns relate mainly to skilled workers.