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primary or extractive industries, and, in addition, handling imported materials. The volume of production in secondary industries is about one-third higher than its pre-war level. It is in respect of the 218,000 workers in these industries that the most adequate statistics are available, enabling us to trace the importance of and the connection between numbers engaged, average number of hours worked per employee, output per man-hour, and total output. The connection between total output and the goods available to the consuming public is at once apparent and the importance of all the contributing factors from the point of view of national welfare is generally recognized so far as secondary industries are concerned. These factors are no less important in other industries where the connection is not so easily traced by means of statistical records. (5) Transport and communication services are, of course, vital in a modern community; 67,700 workers are engaged in rail, road, water, and air transport and in post and telegraph services. The travelling public, the distributive trades, the exporting and importing industries, and the community generally are almost entirely dependent on them. (6) Primary and secondary industries in general are concerned with the production of materials and finished goods and not with their distribution to buyers. The distributive processes include wholesale and retail trade and the supply of credit and the arrangement of financial transactions by establishments such as banks and insurance companies. There are 108,200 workers in all branches of distribution and finance. (7) To supply the public's requirements for personal services, 41,400 persons work in hotels, restaurants, laundries, barbers' shops, &c, and as private domestic servants. (8) Social, professional, and administrative services account for 88,200 workers who, besides staffing hospitals, schools, universities, &c, provide medical, dental, legal, religious, and other professional services. Government and local authorities' administration (but not their productive activities) are included here. (9) Production of all the goods and services referred to in the last six paragraphs engages 701,500 persons. With a balance of 9,000 persons in the Armed Forces and 100 unemployed, this makes up the potential labour force of 710,600. With this background it is apparent that, except for unpaid services within families or of a charitable nature, the entire flow of goods and services available to build up the living standard of the population must stem, either directly or indirectly, from the efforts of these 710,600 workers. Current indications are that their combined effort is not sufficient to meet the demands made upon them. The population evidently desires more of some types of goods and services than these workers are producing, and this desire finds its expression as an unsatisfied demand for more workers. It is necessary, then, to consider the extent of this apparent labour shortage and how far the labour force is likely to be augmented to meet it or, alternatively, how the efforts of workers can be more efficiently applied. (10) Statistics of notified vacancies showed 7,267 unsatisfied vacancies for males and 7,574 for females in secondary industries at 31st March, 1948. The largest number of vacancies for males was in the engineering and metal-working industries and for females in the clothing industry. Vacancies in primary industry were comparatively few, numbering only 751 males and 8 females. In the servicing industries the largest unsatisfied demand for labour was in railway transport for males and in hospitals for females. For all industries combined there were 13,684 unsatisfied notified vacancies for males and 12,216 for females. These figures refer to vacancies notified to the Department's district offices by employers who seek the assistance of the Department in filling vacancies.
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