§ Mr. SHORTasked the Minister of Labour the total number of persons employed in a normal year before the War and the number employed in 1922; and the estimated population for the years under notice?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINNo statistics are available as to the total number of persons in employment at any time. At the 1911 Census, 16,284,399 persons were returned in England and Wales as engaged in gainful occupations, whether as employers, as persons working for employers, or as persons working on their own account. The 1921 Census County Reports contain corresponding statistics distinguishing persons working for employers; but figures for the whole of England and Wales are not as yet available. The total population of England and Wales in 1911 was 36,070,492, while the corresponding figure for 1921 is provisionally returned as 37,885,242, the population for 1922 being estimated at 38,158,000.