PBOCBEDINGS OF SECTION G. iM9 



This is on the principle that the first concern of one having 

 to earn his living is usually the securing of employment, while his 

 second concern is with the nature of the employment which he 

 has chosen or secured, and the various conditions arising out of 

 that employment and its accompanying circumstances. 



1. The first of these main branches, viz., amount of employ- 

 ment, must take cognizance of two main factors, namely, (i) the 

 demand for labour, and (ii) the supply of labour. To deal with 

 these in a statistical and descriptive way is one of the main pur- 

 poses of the new branch. 



(i) Statistically considered the demand for labour may be illus- 

 trated under four main headings, namely — 



(a) Statistics of production, including agricultural, pas- 

 toral, horticultural, mining, manufacturing, build- 

 ing, transport, and other industries. 

 (h) Statistics of numbers employed in these various branches 

 of industries. 



(c) Statistics of trade. 



(d) Statistics of operations of employment bureaux. 



(ii) The supply of labour is also illustrated by the above as well 

 as by— 



(e) Statistics of immigration. 

 (/) Statistics of unemployment. 



2. Turning now to the second main branch, namely, statistics 

 relating to the nature and conditions of employment, a wide field 

 is opened. This branch may be divided into five main subdivi- 

 sions — 



(ff) Statistics of industrial disputes, showing the result of 

 operations of the different Commonwealth and Stat© 

 Acts in regard to the prevention and settlement of 

 disputes. 



(6) Industrial accidents showing the relatively hazardous 

 nature of different occupations. 



(c) Statistics of labour organizations and employers' asso- 



ciations, designed to show the extent to which dif- 

 ferent branches of industry are organized in different 

 localities. 



(d) Statistics of wages and hours of labour. 



(e) Statistics of prices and cost of living. 



In regard to the first main branch (amount of employment), 

 most of the headings included under demand for, and supply of, 

 labour are already dealt with by the Commonwealth Bureau of 

 Census and Statistics. In this connexion, perhaps, the most im- 

 portant direction in which the work of the bureau is to be extended 

 is in regard to the question of unemployment. 



