Abstract
THE report of the Ministry of Labour for the year 1938 shows that on the average for the year the numbers in employment were about 120,000 less than in 1937 although higher than in any previous year except 1937, and more than 20 per cent higher than in 1924, when the series of comparable statistics was begun (Cmd. 6016. London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1939. 2s. net). The seasonal fluctuations were less than usual, the maximum variation in the rate of unemployment among insured persons in the general scheme being only 0·5 per cent as against variations of from 2 to 5 per cent in previous years. Seasonal improvement in the first half of the year, however, was much less marked than usual in the building and contracting industries, brick manufacture and the distributive trades, and was almost entirely offset by a decline in metal and metal goods manufacture, engineering, the textile industries, especially in the cotton industry, and the normal slackening in coal mining. In the second half of the year the seasonal decline in building and public works contracting, transport, distribution and the hotel and boarding-house service was counterbalanced by improvements in the textile industries, metal goods manufacture, and the vehicle and mining industries. The effects of the recession of 1937–38 were spread very unevenly over different areas of the country, being most marked in the north-western area, in which employment declined by 7·5 per cent, mainly through contraction in the cotton industry. Wales suffered severely with a fall of 5·4 per cent, mainly in the iron and steel and tin-plate industries. In the Midlands there was a fall of 3·4 per cent and in the south-eastern division no change.
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Employment in 1938. Nature 144, 107–108 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144107b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144107b0