§ 96. Mr. Jayasked the Minister of Labour what steps he is taking to discourage the outflow of labour from the engineering industries into the distributive trades and other industries catering for home consumption.
§ Mr. WatkinsonMy local offices do their best to encourage workers who are seeking a change of employment to take first preference work in the basic industries and in defence and export work in other industries, such as engineering. Although there was a fall of 1 per cent. in the numbers employed in the engineering industries in the twelve months up to May, 1953, there were increases in some important sectors such as aircraft and shipbuilding. The industries in which employment increased most were textiles and clothing in which a considerable recovery has taken place in exports as well as in home trade.