asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the number of registered unemployed in the Saorstát at the present time, and if he could give similar figures for Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and also the number of unemployed per 1,000 of the population in these countries.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - UNEMPLOYED STATISTICS (HOME AND ABROAD).
The number of persons registered for employment at the Employment Exchanges and Branch Employment Offices in the Saorstát on 22nd November, 1926, was 23,072. This figure includes all those persons who attended personally at the Employment Offices during the previous two weeks and a few persons who registered by post during the previous three weeks.
Comparable figures are not available in respect of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In October, 1926, the issue of the "International Labour Review," published by the International Labour Office, Geneva, certain figures are given for these countries showing the respective numbers of unemployed therein who are Trade Unionists. The latest figures are as follows:--
Australia—27,846 unemployed Trade Unionists, representing 6.7% of all Trade Unionists and 5.1 per 1,000 of the total population (1921).
Canada—5,695 unemployed Trade Unionists, representing 4.1% of all Trade Unionists and 0.5 per 1,000 of the total population (1921).
New Zealand—3,996 unemployed Trade Unionists, representing 8.6% of all Trade Unionists and 3.3 per 1,000 of the total population (1921).
The figure 23,072 includes workers in the Saorstát registered as unemployed, whether Trade Unionists or not, and represents 8.7% of all insured workers and 7.6 per 1,000 of the total population (1926).
The greatest care should be exercised in making international comparisons, as employment in many countries is seasonal, and the winter months in Canada and the Saorstát are the summer months in Australia and New Zealand, and vice versa.
I should like to call the Minister's attention to the publication of figures in the "Journal of the Empire Parliamentary Association" giving the unemployed in the different States of Australia per 1,000 of the population without any reference to Trade Unionists. It seems to me that if those figures are available for the States the combined figure must be available for the whole Commonwealth. Those figures were contained in the latest publication of the "Journal of the Empire Parliamentary Association."
When is it proposed to resume the publication of the weekly returns from the Unemployment Exchanges?
It is not proposed to resume them at all.
Can the Minister tell us what reason now prevails for not resuming publication?
The reason that operated when publication was discontinued.
That is, that the figures were not reliable.
No, that they were being misconstrued.
That they were not reliable as an index.
Not reliable as an index as taken by certain people.