§ Major Bruceasked the Minister of Labour whether he will furnish figures showing as at 31st March, or the nearest convenient date thereto, of each year from 1918 to 1946, the numbers of men and women employed in the city of Portsmouth; and the numbers unemployed and distinguishing where possible, temporary and permanent unemployment.
§ Mr. Isaacs:The available figures corn-piled by my Department relate to persons insured under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, and the first year for which comparable figures are available is 1923. The table below shows the approximate numbers of insured persons as indicated
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Date. Approximate numbers of insured persons. Numbers of insured persons unemployed Men aged 18 years and over.* Women aged 18 years and over.* Men aged 18 years and over. * Women aged 18 years and over. * Wholly unemployed (inc. Casuals). Temporarily stopped. Wholly unemployed.(inc. Casuals). Temporarily stopped. July 1923 … 32,830 8,400 Comparable figures not available 1924 … 33,430 9,000 1925 … 33,400 10,650 3,757 — 425 — 1926 … 33,220 10,150 3,901 17 544 91 1927 … 33,280 10,120 2,873 — 505 94 1928 … 32,920 10,090 3,164 4 387 85 1929 … 33,800 10,340 2,758 2 244 21 1930 … 35,190 10,670 4,066 — 441 73 1931 … 30,690 11,360 5,569 28 672 109 1932 … 37,790 11,380 6,520 24 760 155 1933 … 38,780 11,530 5,503 41 705 37 1934 … 38,890 11,310 4,900 5 457 202 1935 … 39,890 11,850 4,841 — 354 72 1936 … 41,110 12,030 3,498 — 419 117 1937 … 43,010 12,340 3,233 — 372 59 1938 … 45,590 13,440 3,167 3 353 54 1939 … 48,420 14,260 2,217 2 594 48 1940 … 44,530 15,820 964 — 838 97 1941 … 38,560 14,360 205 — 155 21 1942 … 37,560 18,470 215† — 121† 33 1943 … 36,130 19,710 211 — 47 — 1944 … 37,120 20,070 132 — 22 — 1945 … 34,690 18,250 377 — 107 — 1946 (March) — — 1,067 — 841 3 * The figures for 1923 to 1927 relate to persons aged 18 years and over, including those aged over 65. Persons aged 65 years and over ceased to be insurable under the Unemployment Insurance Acts in January, 1928, and the figures for 1928 to 1939 relate to persons aged 18 and under 65 years. Women aged 60 and under 65 years ceased to be insurable in July, 1940, and the figures for 1940 and later years relate, therefore, to men aged 18 and under 65 and to women aged 18 and under 60 years. † For 1942 and subsequent years the unemployment figures exclude persons classified as unsuitable ordinary employment. In 1942 the numbers so excluded were 44 men and 6 women. by the statistics of unemployment insurance books exchanged at Portsmouth Employment Exchange in respect of men and women, employed and unemployed, insured against unemployment at July of each year from 1923 to 1945, the latest year for which such figures are available, together with the numbers of such persons recorded as unemployed in July of each of those years and at 11th March, 1946, distinguishing wholly unemployed, i.e., out of a situation, and temporarily stopped, i.e., temporarily suspended from work on the understanding that they were shortly to resume their former employment. Agricultural workers, who first became insurable against unemployment in 1936, have been excluded throughout.