§ Mr. LEACHasked the President of the Board of Trade the percentage of unemployment in the woollen trade in the years 1905 and 1912; what percentage of increase in wages has taken place in this trade in 1912 as compared with 1905; and what percentage of increase in the price of food has taken place in the same period?
Mr. ROBERTSONChanges in the state of employment in the woollen and worsted trades are not very satisfactorily shown by the percentages of unemployed returned by trade unions, both because only a small fraction of the workpeople employed in these industries are members of unions and also because variations in employment frequently take the form of short time rather than of discharge of workpeople. Such returns by unions as are available show that, out of a membership varying from about 6,000 to 7,500, the mean monthly percentage unemployed was 3.6 in 1908 (the first complete year for which figures are available), and 2.4 in 1912. The latter figure would be even lower but for the high percentage unemployed in March (12.8) owing to the coal strike. If March were eliminated, the percentage for the remaining eleven months of 1912 is 1.5. So far as can be judged from the data contained in the monthly returns received from a large number of employers in these trades with regard to the numbers em-230W ployed and wages paid, the average weekly earnings per head in the woollen trade increased by about 10 per cent., and in the worsted trade by about 16 per cent. as between 1905 and 1912. It has, however, to be remembered that these percentages do not represent increases in rates of wages only, but are also affected by the improved state of employment. Special inquiries relating to thirteen of the principal articles of food have shown that, on the basis of the estimated average working-class consumption of these commodities, the rise in prices between October, 1905, and October, 1912, in large towns in the West Riding of Yorkshire varied from 12 to 15 per cent.