LABOUR STATISTICS. (Hansard, 19 July 1922)

§ Dr. MACNAMARA

The statistics available as to numbers employed and wages paid are not sufficiently complete to enable exact particulars to be given of the total number of wage earners in this country, or of the net increase in wages since 1914, in the industries referred to. The following Table, however, gives some information as to the numbers of workpeople and as to the increase in full-time rates of wages between July, 1914, and December, 1921, in agriculture, and in the coal mining, building, engineering and cotton and wool textile trades. It is not possible, from the information available, to state the highest and lowest rates of wages in these industries, but the Table gives particulars of the recognised time rates of ordinary agricultural labourers and of representative classes of skilled and unskilled men in the building and engineering industries. It should be noted that the figures given relate to full-time rates of wages and take no account of loss of earnings resulting from unemployment and short time, and that in all the industries referred to reductions in rates of wages have been made since December, 1921.

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I. APPROXIMATE NUMBERS OF WORKPEOPLE AND WEEKLY RATES OF WAGES OF MEN ON TIME WORK IN AGRICULTURE IN ENGLAND AND WALES, AND IN THE BUILDING AND ENGINEERING INDUSTRIES IN GREAT BRITAIN.
Industry.	Approximate Number of Workpeople in 1921 (a).	Weekly Full-Time Rates of Wages of typical classes of men (b).
Class.	Rates at July, 1914.	Usual range of Rates at December, 1921.
Agriculture	869,000	Ordinary Labourers…	14s. to 22s.	34s. to 40s.
Building	760,000	Bricklayers…	40s. 7d.	88s. 1d.
		Painters…	36s. 3d.	87s. 10d.
		Labourers…	27s. 2d.	69s. 11d.
Engineering (including ironfounding).	1,127.000	Fitters and Turners…	38s. 8d.	76s. 9d.
		Labourers…	22s. 11d.	59s. 4d.

II. APPROXIMATE NUMBERS OF WORKPEOPLE AND GENERAL(c) INCREASES IN WAGES IN THE COAL MINING AND CUTTON AND WOOL TEXTILE INDUSTRIES IN GREAT BRITAIN.
Industry.	Approximate Number of Workpeople in 1921(a).	General(c) increase in rates of wages over the pre-war level at December, 1921.
Coal Mining	1,167,000	From 20 to 90 per cent.(d) in different districts.
Cotton Textile Industry.	573,000	140 per cent. on basic wage rates. (Approximately 133 per cent. on pre-war rates(e).
Wool Textile Industry(f).	263,000	125½ per cent. (time-workers); 104½ per cent. (male piece-workers(d); 109'7 per cent. (female pieceworkers(d).
(a) For agriculture, the figure is the number of persons returned to the Ministry of Agriculture as employed on holdings of more than one acre, at 4th June, 1921, in England and Wales. The figure is exclusive of occupiers and their wives and of workers employed by a few persons who refuse to supply information.
For industries other than agriculture, the figure is the estimated number of workpeople, including those unemployed insured against unemployment under the Unemployment Insurance Acts in Great Britain at the end of 1921; these numbers do not include persons employed otherwise than by manual labour at a rate of remuneration exceeding in value £250 a year, juveniles under 16 years of age and certain other classes, e.g., permanent employés of local authorities. In the case of coal mining the total number of wage-earners on the colliery books in December, 1921, according to returns collected by the Mines Department, was approximately 1.070,000.
(b) For agriculture the figures represent the usual range of weekly rates of wages in England and Wales, figures for Scotland not being available. For the building trade, the rates quoted are the unweighted averages of the recognised time rates of wages in 38 of the larger towns of Great Britain. For the engineering trade they represent the unweighted averages of the district rate of wages in 15 of the principal districts in Great Britain.
(c) In addition, special advances have been granted to certain classes of workers in some districts.
(d) In addition, piece rates of wages were increased in 1919, when the normal weekly working hours were reduced, in such proportion as to prevent any reduction in weekly earnings resulting from the reduction in the working hours.
(e) In July, 1914, wages in the cotton industry were 5 per cent. above basic list rates and at December, 1921, they were 145 per cent. above basic list rates. The increase includes a special advance of 30 per cent. on list rates granted in July, 1919, when the weekly hours were reduced from 55i to 48 in order to maintain the weekly wages at the same level as before the reduction in hours.
(f) The particulars given as to wages relate to the West Riding of Yorkshire.