Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/864

mittee is chosen and appointed by the minister. The committees are responsible for advising the minister upon every phase of the work of the exchanges with which they are associated. They are free to initiate their business and to carry it out through sub-committees. Two hundred and forty-six committees have formed women's departments at the exchanges. Consisting of representatives of every industrial interest of importance in the locality, the com- mittees are in a position to indicate precisely in what ways each exchange should be adapted to local needs so as to be of most service, and further, the committees have since their formation undertaken much detailed work on behalf of individual workpeople upon the books of the exchanges.

Exchange Statistics. The scale and ^character of the work done is shown in Table I.

TABLE I. Employment Exchanges.

Individ-

Vacan-

Vacan-

Individ-

Y

AT

Registra- tions

uals Regis-

cies Notified

cies Filled

uals Found

xir l

tered

Work

I9IO

920,000

740,221

261,560

219,069

I9II

1,323,162

978,211

446,035

362,670

268,794

1912

1,594.236

1.025,332

626,756

5'3,649

336,341

1913

2,088,735

1,267,077

714,270

566,150

390,141

1914

2,316,042

1,381,694

909,383

706,458

507.538

Men

1915

1-512,335

1,072,213

1,004,970

716,816

577.206

I9l6

1,229,171

954,172

909,721

636,095

539.564

1917

1,167,864

938,725

906,627

623,830

539.396

1918

1.363,590

I.N9.905

977,999

669,732

582,899

1919

3.601,393

2,897,333

900,970

658,836

598,658

1920

2,392,553

1,699,924

581,406

454.624

393.623

I9IO

290,000

232,106

103,007

81,846

I9II

414459

307,641

178,446

136,409

97,598

1912

518,775

360,873

226,276

168,555

118,650

1913

532,060

35L755

270,325

199,395

133.424

w/\

1914

707,071

476,926

312,344

232.935

160,145

wo-

1915

,232,891

920,638

493.515

385,101

306,192

men

1916

,92 1 ,826

1,501,260

846,196

695,631

615,920

1917

,873.706

1,487,728

814.785

706,034

636,269

1918

,815,691

1,478,934

808,490

624,220

547,412

1919

,927,143

1,568,625

731.320

408,033

34L773

1920

,015,113

767,037

469,068

284,451

212,895

1910

110,000

90,084

62,233

46,728

I9II

185,108

138,684

106,920

77,881

64.752

1912

200,403

146,434

130,601

88,086

70,565

1913

186,574

137,668

143.715

90,387

74.535

1914

211,898

157.093

157.278

103,280

85,068

Boys

1915

194,864

150,559

i6i,459

106,716

90,237

I9l6

241,314

184,443

148,091

1 16,900

100,053

1917

265,668

204,283

146,103

120,525

105,547

1918

296,673

234.285

148,158

122,054

106,429

J9I9

355,547

285,603

155.978

117,166

103,237

I92O

286,003

218,365

133,662

106,938

93.386

1910

80,000

65,036

32,143

26,670

I9II

117,718

88,833

57.208

44.450

38,066

1912

151,890

110,948

78.941

57.940

48,153

1913

158,524

"5.I7I

94,5i8

65,921

54,206

1914

207,441

148,310

100,019

74,236

61,320

Girls

I9IS

246,047

183,393

137,702

99,506

84,701

1916

266,378

203,909

145,010

108,609

95,869

1917

268,142

206,914

I3L927

104,834

93,986

1918

263,110

212,139

132,570

98,706

88,003

1919

313.570

252,225

163,096

105,928

94,207

I92O

290,931

220,972

127,997

95,695

84,265

1910

i ,400,000

1,127,447

458,943

374-313

I9II

2,040,447

1,513,369

788,609

621,410

469,210

1912

2,465,304

1,643.587

1,062,574

828,230

573,709

1913

2,965,893

1,871,671

1,222,828

921,853

652,306

1914

3,442,452

2,164,023

1,479,024

,116,909

814,071

Total

1915

3,186,137

2,326,803

1,797,646

,308,137

1,058,336

1916

3,658,689

2,843,784

2,049,018

,557,235

1,351,406

1917

3,575,380

2,837,650

1,999,442

,555,223

1,375,198

1918

3,739,064

3,045,263

2,067,217

,514.712

1,324,743

1919

6,197,653

5,003,786

1,951,364

,289,963

1,137,875

I92O

3,984,600

2,906,298

1,312.133

941,708

784,169

During the World War and the period of demobilization (Aug. 1914 to the end of 1919) much work of a special kind (see below) was undertaken by the exchanges, and in order to judge the extent to which they are used by employers and workpeople in normal years attention should be directed to the non-war periods.

It should be noted that at the end of 1918 the age-limit for " boys and girls " was raised from 17 to 18. The table shows that the work of the exchange system increased steadily and reached its maximum

in the latter years of the World War. The figures for 1920 indicate a return after the exceptional war conditions to a normal scale of work. It appears that the exchanges may anticipate roughly the receipt each year of 3,000,000 registrations by unemployed work- people, of notifications by employers of I J million vacancies and the filling of 1,000,000 of those vacancies. It should be remembered that the latter half of 1920 was a period of industrial decline.

Casual Labour. Schemes intended to lead up to the regularization of employment were devised at the Liverpool docks, the Goole docks, the South Wales ports (ship repairers), and at Manchester (cloth porters). Of these, the Liverpool dock scheme is the most inter- esting. Managed by a joint committee of employers and workpeople in the docks, the scheme has led, through a system of tallies issued to approved dock workers, to some limitation in the number of the dockers employed in or about the port. The scheme also provides for a single weekly payment of wages to each man employed, irre- spective of the number of separate employers for whom he may have worked. The wage-paying arrangements at Liverpool have not been copied elsewhere, but the method of controlling dock labour by the issue through a joint committee to dock workers of tallies, has be- come almost universal in British ports and provides a basis upon which it is possible to build schemes to regularize the employment of dockers.

Juvenile Employment. Since 1910 a separate system of com- mittees for dealing with the employment of juveniles (under 17 years of age to Dec. 1918 and under 18 years of age thereafter) has been in operation (see JUVENILE EMPLOYMENT). These committees are j either formed by the Ministry of Labour under the Labour Ex- changes Act, or by the local education authorities under the Choice of Employment Act, 1910. Their work is, in cooperation with the employment exchanges, to supervise the finding of employment for children; to advise children as to the most promising openings, and generally to take such local action as is calculated to improve the conditions of juvenile employment.

Unemployment Insurance. On May 4 1911, Mr. Asquith's Government introduced in the House of Commons, as the second part of the National Insurance Bill, proposals for the compulsory insurance upon a contributive basis of zj million workpeople. The bill received the royal assent, Dec. 16 1911. This measure, to the extent to which it brought the employed population within the scope of unemployment insurance, completed the policy for dealing with unemployment which had been begun in 1909 by the passage of the Labour Exchanges Act. Part II. of the National Insurance Act also contained provisions intended to encourage voluntary provision for unemployment in the indus- tries which were not included under the compulsory scheme.

All workpeople employed in the " Insured Trades " as defined by a schedule to the Act were compelled to be insured against unem-

Cloyment. Contributions were payable as from July 15 1912, and enefit was paid from Jan. 8 1913. The trades concerned were build- ing, construction of works, shipbuilding, engineering, construction of vehicles, ironfounding, together with saw-milling in connexion with, or of a kind commonly done in connexion with, any of the insured trades. Questions as to the precise limits of the insured trades were settled by an umpire appointed by the Crown to act for the whole kingdom. An unemployment fund was created out of contributions from workpeople employed in the insured trades and from the employers of such workpeople. The rate of contributions was 2jd. each from employer and workman for each period of employment up to a week, with reduced rates for workmen below 18 years of age and for periods of employment of adults for two days or less, viz. a joint contribution of 2d. for a week's employment of a juvenile worker or for the employment of an adult for a period not exceeding two days. To the amount so collected the State contributed an amount equal to one-third of the joint contributions of employers and workpeople. It was the duty of an employer to affix to an unemployment book each week, or at the earlier termination of the employment, a stamp of the value of his own and the workmen's contributions, the em- ployer thereafter deducting the amount of the workman's contribu- tion from wages paid to him. The scheme provided unemployment benefit at the rate of 73. a week during unavoidable unemployment subject to a maximum of 15 weeks' benefit in any 12 months and to the limitation of payment to one week's benefit for every five full contributions paid by the workman. Benefit was not payable to persons under 17 years of age and was payable at half the adult rates between the ages of 17 and 18. The principal statutory condi- tions for the receipt of benefit were application for benefit in the prescribed manner, namely at a Board of Trade labour exchange or other local office of the unemployment fund; proofs, secured mainly by daily attendance at the labour exchange, that unemployment had been continuous since the date of application; capacity for work, and inability to obtain suitable employment. Proof that the last condition had been satisfied was obtained mainly by an examination of the register of vacancies at the labour exchange in order to see whether suitable employment was available and the offer to the applicant of any apparently suitable work. A workman was dis-