Earl WINTERTONasked the Minister of Labour what was the average percentage of unemployment, according to the official figures published by the Government of each country, of the total population during the month of January in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, respectively?
§ Miss BONDFIELDThere are no official statistics, in any of these countries, showing the percentage unemployed among the whole population. The information in my possession regarding the extent of unemployment in each of the countries in December, 1930, or January, 1931, is as follows:
In Great Britain the total numbers of workpeople on the registers of Employment Exchanges at 26th January were 1,875,330 wholly unemployed, 607,443 temporarily stopped and 109,877 normally in casual employment. The percentage unemployed among insured workpeople was 21.3, including 16.3 per cent. wholly unemployed and casuals and 5 per cent. temporarily stopped. In Germany, the total number of persons reported by the Employment Exchanges as unemployed at the end of January was 4,887,000 (revised figure). The percentage unemployed among 4,433,000 members of trade unions in respect of whom information is available was 34.2 at the end of January, and a further 19.2 per cent. were on short time. In the United States the total number unemployed is not known, but I understand that the number in December, 1930, was estimated, for the purpose of a Report to the Senate, at between 4,500,000 and 5,000,000 and recent unofficial estimates range from 5,700,000 (the estimate of the American Federation of Labour of the total number of wage-earners out of work in January in all trades in the United States, union and non-union) to about 8,000,000 (an estimate of the National Unemployment League). It is possible that the lower of these estimates relates to industrial workers only. Among members of trade unions, in 24 cities, affiliated to the 1401W American Federation of Labour, 27 per cent. were reported to be unemployed in January and varying proportions, ranging from 8 per cent. to 25 per cent. in different cities, were on short time. An investigation made by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, in December, 1930, among its industrial policy holders in 46 large cities, the results of which have appeared in a Report by the Chairman of the President's Emergency Committee for Employment, is stated to have shown that among 213,787 families with 355,759 wage or salary earners 23.8 per cent. were wholly unemployed and 21.3 per cent. were working part time. It should be observed that, owing to differences in the bases on which they are compiled, the figures
Date Men. Boys.* Women. Girls.* Total. Plymouth. 5th January … … 4,970 172 1,056 172 6,370 12th January … … 4,889 189 1,058 175 6,311 19th January … … 4,867 184 1,078 188 6,317 26th January … … 4,813 192 1,064 190 6,259 2nd February … … 4,669 190 1,037 173 6,069 9th February … … 4,613 182 1,033 168 5,996 16th February … … 4,483 172 1,022 163 5,840 23rd February … … 4,515 175 1,015 166 5,871 Devonport. 5th January … … 2,231 — 515 — 2,746 12th January … … 2,089 — 537 — 2,626 19th January … … 2,069 — 553 — 2,622 26th January … … 1,941 — 562 — 2,503 2nd February … … 1,892 — 549 — 2,441 9th February … … 1,910 — 543 — 2,453 16th February … … 1,896 — 532 — 2,428 23rd February … … 1,874 — 544 — 2,418 * Statistics of unemployment among Juveniles living at Devonport are included under Plymouth.