H.—35.

from the expenditure by the Unemployment Board. The increase in the cost to the State for the provision of relief to the unemployed in recent years is shown by the following figures : —-

NUMBERS OP UNEMPLOYED. As an Appendix to this report will be found a table showing the numbers of men remaining on the registers of employment bureaux at the end of each week during the period under review. It should be explained that on account of the necessity for keeping a continuous check oil men employed on a scheme providing only part-time work, these figures include the men employed through local bodies on relief work under Scheme No. 5. On the other hand, the table does not include numbers of men who would otherwise be unemployed but were engaged during the year on permanent or semi-permanent work made available by means of subsidies or grants from the Unemployment Fund, such men being removed from the register and treated as placements. The actual registrations are the only data available for viewing the movement in unemployment figures over an extended period. The inherent weakness of such data is that during normal times the majority of unemployed persons do not trouble to register, preferring rather to seek employment on their own initiative. Evidence of this weakness is contained in figures quoted in the Appendix to the Board's first report, where it is shown that although there were 10,694 male wage-earners unemployed at the date of the last census, 20th April, 1926 (prior to the inception of the present relief system), the number of unplaced applicants on the books of the Labour Department at the end of the week in which the census day fell was only 576, the weekly average for that year being 1,196. Immediately, however, on the establishment of a State-controlled scheme for relieving unemployment on a large scale, such as that necessitated by present conditions, the registration system, which is an essential part of the organization, is availed of by practically every person who finds himself unable to secure work in his usual sphere of activity, and incidentally by considerable numbers who normally are unemployable or work only intermittently, but who do not hesitate to seek to participate in benefits provided for genuinely unemployed wage-earners. As a general indication, however, of the movement in the registrations of unemployed since the beginning of 1930, the following table presents the numbers on the register at the end of each month during that period when unemployment attained its most acute stage in the history of the Dominion. In view of the position during the recent winter months, figures are shown up to the end of September, 1932. They do not include men temporarily removed from registers, and working under schemes other than No. 5, but yet a charge on the Board's funds : —

2—PI. 35.

9

Public Works Other v Department State Forest "Y." s Subsidies to Unemplo3'ment rr . , n Year " (including Main Service. " g 1 Local Bodies. Fund. TotaK Highways). R^ilw^ys)! £ £ £ £ £ £ 1926-27 .. 130,000 14,240 .. .. .. 144,240 1927-28 .. 379,565 27,550 .. 75,106 .. 482,221 1928-29 .. 680,393 50,250 3,500 68,566 .. 802,709 1929-30 .. 914,109 185,400 204,464 111,728 .. 1,415,701 1930-31 .. 1,249,446 82,000 21,933 116,768 313,209 1,783,356 1931-32 .. 886,953 74,000 14,684 11,478 j 2,216,886 3,204,001 Totals.. 4,240,466 433,440 244,581 383,646 2,530,095 7,832,228

1930. 1931. ! 1932. Last week in— January .. .. .- 2,572 16,607 45,654 February .. .. .. 2,520 27,662 44,107 March .. .. .. 3,130 38,028 45,383 April . . .. 3,379 36,981 50,093 May . 5,084 42,523 53,543 June .. .. .. 5,491 45,264 54,342 July .. .. 5,360 47,772 55,837 August . . . • • • 5,463 50,033 56,332 September .. . 6,025 51,375 55,728 October .6,018 50,284 November . - 7,402 47,535 December 11,371* 45,140 * This number recorded just prior to Christmas. In the following week the figure dropped to 7,590, owing to the placing of a considerable number of men on a special temporary scheme.