H.—llA.

ANALYSIS OF UNEMPLOYMENT REGISTRATIONS. In last year's report it was indicated that an attempt was being made to conduct, through the medium of personal interviews, an analysis of the potential employability of relief recipients. After a considerable degree of preliminary work arrangements were finalized for interviews between selected departmental officers and each person assisted from the Fund whom it was deemed necessary to examine for the purpose of determining the prospects of rehabilitation into the industrial spheres from which each such person had been displaced or excluded and for which he was now best suited. Beginning in a small way, a few officers were chosen to conduct interviews along lines laid down by skilled psychologists whose valuable services were freely given to the Department. The number of officers was later enlarged as opportunities for their training were presented. It is not practicable to engage a large staff on work of this nature for the reason that the lines along which the interviews are to be conducted and the conclusions to be drawn must necessarily be founded on a common basis, and too many interviewing officers militate against the desired uniformity. At the present date it is estimated that the personal analysis will be finished by the end of August. When all reports have been assembled the task of examining them will be undertaken. The unemployed will be broadly classified into employable and unemployable groups and the degree of employability of the first group will be examined and the measures indicated that may be necessary to restore or create maximum utility through the medium of training or treatment. The final classification of the unemployed will be as follows, unless experience derived from the course of the analysis justifies a different subdivision : — (1) Those sixty-five years of age and over. (2) Those qualified both by reason of personal conditions and of adequate industrial experience for full-time employment. (3) Those personally qualified by reason of physique and mentality but lacking adequate industrial experience. (4) Those qualified by industrial experience but disqualified by some personal condition either mental or physical. (5) Those disqualified on both grounds —i.e., industrially and personally. Independently of the personal analysis, the Department made a census in March, 1938, in respect of persons on the register at that date. The census was designed to show the conjugal status, age, industrial classification, employment and unemployment history of each person. Much useful information has been obtained from this source and it is recorded in the statistical tables IX, IXa, &c., in the Appendix hereto. To be of full value the census should be taken at least half-yearly so that the trend of employment in industry may be accurately determined. The information which will be derived from a repeated census of this nature will facilitate research into labour turnover, casual unemployment, &c., the location of the greatest concentration of unemployment throughout the Dominion, the periodic comparisons of unemployment at different intervals, an insight into the influence of policies, and the provision of knowledge upon which long-term policies may be based. Of equal significance to the Department is the location of industries and research into industrial movements of employment and unemployment. Valuable information on these points will be derived from the declarations as to industrial status which were returned with the declarations of income other than salary or wages (E.T. 55) in May last. In addition to repeating in the Appendix a table relating to age-groups and duration of unemployment as was done last year, an exhaustive analysis of unemployed men, according to their industrial classifications, has been made and is contained in Table IXa. An occupational classification of unemployed was published some years ago, but the analysis now published is more detailed and moreover indicates the industries in which men were last employed. Occupational distribution is of much less importance than industrial classification in an endeavour to determine the trend of employment and unemployment in the industrial sphere. The following figures illustrate how the distress arising from unemployment is more widespread than is indicated by the brief official intimation that a certain number of men were on relief at a given date. As at the 4th June, 1938, the numbers of men in receipt of work-relief and sustenance (including men unfit for work) were as follows :—

The letters at the head of the columns indicate the conjugal classification of the relief recipients. A. classification represents single men, B. married men, C. married men with one child, D. married men with two children, and so on.

4

■ A. B. 0. U. E. ! P. G. H. I. J. K. I L. M. Totals. l___ _ I I Sustenance .. 5,245 | 3,389 ] 1,393 978 663 396 243 152 95 30 15 I 6 3 ;12,608 Scheme 5 .. 1,029 , 569 I 362 242 196 149 I 97 78 57 24 5 4 .. 2,812 ' I | I ! i _ Totals .. .. 6,274 3,958 j 1,755 [ 1,220 ! 859 ' 545 ' 340 j 230 152 54 20 10 3 115,420