H.-11

92

APPENDIX. STATISTICS CONCERNING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES OF NEW ZEALAND. Showing the Actual Number of Persons employed in each Trade throughout the Yeah 1910-11; their Average Duration of Employment; their Average Weekly Earnings ineach Trade during the Period of Employment ; and their Average Weekly Earnings in each Trade throughout the Year. Hitherto the tables published by the Department, from its inception in 1891, have comprised merely the number of persons employed at a given date of each year —viz., at the time of the annual registration of factories—with the rates at which they were then employed. In the appendix to last year's report the first of a series of tables to be compiled upon the above subject was published. This table showed the information in the several cities and provincial districts. During the past year Tables II and 111 have been completed, and are now published in this appendix. Table II shows the results as for the whole of New Zealand divided into the various industries, while Table 111 shows similar results as for the whole of New Zealand divided into the various trades carried on, whether in the same industries or not. For example, while Table II shows the results for the whole of the workers employed in, say, the meat-freezing industry throughout New Zealand, Table 111 will show the information for the whole of, say, the engine-drivers employed (in the various industries) throughout New Zealand. The following are extracts from the introductory remarks to these tables as published last year and accompanying Table I : — In respect to the item " Aver-age duration of employment" (column 5 in Tables II and III), it should be noted that for the purpose of arriving at this information it has been assumed that when there were occasional and short breaks in the employment of any worker —generally not exceeding at any one time seven days —due to the fluctuation of the trade, to irregular attendance, to sickness, or other causes, he was not likely to have obtained other employment, and such periods have therefore been included in the period during which his total wages were earned —viz., "Duration of employment"; for example, a worker may have performed forty weeks' work during the year, but owing to occasional breaks it may have taken him forty-five weeks to earn the forty weeks' wages; in the tables the total wages thus earned have therefore been divided by forty-five instead of by forty, in order to arrive at the average earnings throughout the " duration of employment " (see column 8). The irregular attendance of female workers for reasons other than sickness has been the cause of frequent complaint by employers. It may be assumed that the average earnings of females as shown in columns 8 and 9 would generally have been higher had they attended more regularly to their employment. In any case where an employee worked in more than one factory, although his employment was shown in the return from each factory, he has, by means of the method adopted in the compilation of the tables, been counted as one employee only —viz., at the time when the greatest number were employed. In many cases, too, workers were employed in more than one city or district during the year, and in order to ascertain the actual duration of employment in the trade generally throughout New Zealand, with the average earnings throughout that period, it will therefore be necessary to refer to Tables II and 111. Thus, while in each of four districts there might have been 100 persons employed in a given trade for an average of 40 weeks, earning £2 10s. per week throughout that period, the result of the whole would be, say, 350 persons (not 400) for 45 weeks, and earning £2 10s. 9£d. per week throughout that period. In Tables II and 111 it will be seen that the number of workers employed in each month of the year is given in respect to each trade, and in this way the tables disclose interesting information as to the tendency of each trade to increase or decrease in its demand for labour, and as to those other trades in which employment is intermittent. In regard to the increasing trades, it should be noted, however, that this information does not in all cases disclose the full extent of the tendency to increase the demand for labour, as in a number of cases—principally of females and boys in the clothing trades —the supply of labour has at times been insufficient to meet the requirements of the employers; had the supply been sufficient the figures would, of course, show a larger number of persons employed. Coming to the intermittent trades, the following results are ascertained in respect to meat-slaughtering, which is probably the most fluctuating of all trades: The highest number employed in Wellington City was in' January, 157; Christchurch, April, 195; Auckland District, February, 106; Hawke's Bay, December, 157; Canterbury (country), May, 314; and so on. Placing the returns for the various districts of New Zealand together, it has been ascertained that the number employed throughout New Zealand varied from 162 in September, 1910, to 1,155 in March, 1911. Therefore, 1,155 has been taken as the actual