§ Lieut.-Colonel LANE-FOXasked the Minister of Labour what were the figures of unemployment for the first week of June, July, August and September, respectively, in 1923, and in the present year?
§ Mr. T. SHAWThe numbers on the registers of Employment Exchanges in Great Britain at the dates mentioned are as under: —
1923. 4th June … 1,220,394 2nd July … 1,225,937 6th August … 1,228,541 3rd September … 1,275,396 1924. 2nd June … 1,002,915 7th July … 1,024,551 4th August … 1,080,234 1st September … 1,162,880 As is explained in a reply given to-day to the hon. Members for Woolwich West and for Bilston rather less than half of the increase in these figures since the end of July last is not a real increase in unemployment but is due to an effect of the Unemployment Insurance Act of 1st August in bringing on the registers unemployed persons who previously would not have been registered, and further that the withdrawal in February last of certain administrative restrictions on the grant of uncovenanted benefit had a similar effect in increasing the numbers counted as unemployed. I may add that in March last a change was made in the method of presenting these figures, the figure for persons on "systematic short time" which had previously been given separately being amalgamated in the total so far as the persons concerned were actually out of work at the date of the return. The figures for 1923 in the Table given above have been adjusted by the addition of persons on systematic short time actually out of work and are therefore comparable in this respect with those for 1924; the numbers so added varied from about 33,000 in June to 42,000 in September. Care should be taken to note this point in comparing current figures for the live register with those published prior to March last.