§ 5. Sir Wavell Wakefieldasked the Minister of Labour if in future he will include in the official figures of unemployment those employees who, although they have no work to do and are therefore unemployed, yet at the request of his Ministry are retained and paid by their employers, in order that the true and not the present artificial figure of unemployed persons may be given.
§ Mr. BevinNo, Sir. There is a limited number of men no longer needed on the work which they have been doing and who are being retained temporarily in employment pending their call up to the Services. It would not be appropriate to include these men in the statistics of unemployment.
§ Sir W. WakefieldWhy publish unemployment figures at all, if they are inaccurate and misleading and do not represent the true unemployment position? What is the point of publishing unemployment figures which bear no relation to the actual unemployment?
§ Mr. BevinThe figures do bear relation to actual unemployment. Because I retain these men in the works pending their call-up, that does not mean that they are unemployed. They are rendering service. I try to arrange that men are not put out of work, when I know that probably, in a month, they will be going into the Services.