540 pkoobe dings op section g. 



3. Employment and Unemployment. 



The collection of accurate information as to unemployment is, 

 of course, essential to any proper investigation into what is pro- 

 bably one of the greatest of social evils, and is a necessary pre- 

 liminary to the organization of any adequate remedial measures. 

 Statistics of unemployment are also of great value in any examina- 

 tion into the relation between nominal and effective wages. 



At the Commonwealth census taken in April, 1911, every per- 

 son out of work was required to state the period for which he had 

 been unemployed. The results thus obtained are now being sup- 

 plemented and elucidated by returns collected quarterly from the 

 secre'taries of trade unions. In these returns the secretaries are re- 

 quired to state the number of members on a specified date, and 

 the number who were unemployed for more than three days dur- 

 ing the week ending on the date specified, the number out of work 

 through (a) lack of work or material, (6) sickness or accident, and 

 (c) other causes being stated separately. 



It is true that the information thus obtained does not by any 

 means throw light on the whole question of unemployment. In the 

 first place it refers only to four specified weeks in the year, and, 

 secondly, it does not take into account unemployment lasting for 

 less than thi-ee days during any of these weeks. The inquiry has, 

 however, advisedly been made in this form in view of the difficulty 

 in obtaining accurate returns of any other description from the 

 majority of the trade unions. Very few of the unions in Australia 

 pay unemployed benefit or keep unemployment registers. The 

 majority of the unions allow, however, for a remission of the 

 weekly subscription in cases where a member has been out of work 

 for more than three days, and it is mainly for that reason that the 

 <juestions have been drafted in their present form. 



It should be pointed out, moreover, that these returns are not 

 collected from unions in which the members are permanently 

 employed, such as locomotive engine-drivers and other Government 

 servants, nor on the other hand, from unions in which employment 

 is mainly of a casual nature, such as wharf labourers. It is in- 

 tended to institute periodic inquiries on special lines so as to afford 

 some indication of the activity of these industries for which ordi- 

 nary statistics of numbers unemployed cannot be obtained. 



As regards those occupations for which unemployment figures 

 are available, a large amount of information has already been col- 

 lected from the union secretaries, and is now being analyzed and 

 tabulated.^ Returns have been collected showing the number of 

 members and the number unemployed at the end of each year as 



1. Since tliis paper was written two Special Reports and two ciuarterly Labour Bulletins 

 have been iNstued. (30.viii.l;H.) 



