§ Mr. H. WILLIAMSasked the Minister of Labour the number of registered unemployed in Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the end of January, 1926, and the number so registered who were not in receipt of benefit?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe number of persons on the registers of Employment Exchanges in Great Britain and Northern Ireland at 25th January, 1926, was 1,262,397. This figure includes 78,902 persons who were not claiming benefit and 79,422 persons whose claims had been disallowed but who were maintaining registration. The remainder were holding current claims to benefit, but a certain proportion were not actually in receipt of benefit at that date.
§ Mr. SKELTONasked the Minister of Labour whether he can publish figures showing the number of unemployed who are on short time as distinct from those who are wholly unemployed?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDArrangements have been made to classify the unemployment returns into casual and non-casual occupations, and, further, to divide the non-casual occupations so as to show those wholly unemployed and those temporarily stopped, respectively. There will thus be three groups, namely, wholly unemployed, temporarily stopped and casuals. Such a classification is not easy to make, as there are a large number of border-line cases between the various groups, but I am advised that1046W the grouping can be carried out with sufficient accuracy for practical purposes. I hope to be able to publish the first figures on the new basis for the weekly live register in the course of next week, and for the monthly analysis of unemployment by industries in the "Labour Gazette" for February. This classification does not affect in any way the total of the live register under the existing headings of men, women, boys and girls. This total, as also the total given monthly in the "Labour Gazette" will be computed in precisely the same manner as heretofore.