§ Mr. Gammansasked the President of the Board of Trade to what he attributes the fact that, in the industries for which reports on production have already been published in the "Board of Trade Journal," the administrative and clerical staffs increased in 1946 by 1,500, although the operatives fell by 5,000; and whether the position regarding this non-productive labour is better or worse now.
§ Mr. BelcherThe reports so far published on the 1946 Partial Census of Production indicate a relative increase in the number of administrative, technical and clerical workers as compared with operatives in the industries covered, but precise comparisons with the pre-war position may be misleading owing to some changes in definition. Detailed figures are not available for this same group of trades since 1946, but Ministry of Labour returns show that for manufacturing industries as a whole, the percentage of administrative, technical and clerical staff to total employees was 16.0 per cent. at mid-1946 and 16.3 per cent. at mid-1948.