800,000 Unemployed
The latest unemployment figures are puzzling, not to say disquieting. At a time when every person's effort is needed there remain about 80o,000 unemployed, including over 300,000 women. Indeed, even after deducting a category which would weight the comparison unfairly, there still are more women unemployed today than there were a year ago. How- ever high one puts one's allowance for the necessary margin of unemployment corresponding to the fluidity of industry, it cannot surely be put as high as that. Nor do the figures seem explicable on the " hard core " theory; for in fact the Ministry of Labour has had considerable success in reducing the number of those who have been unemployed for long periods. The Ministry is now actively inquiring into the facts behind its figures, and may drag some to light. Part of the cause may be that under present conditions spells of unemployment offer a definite attraction to a good many people. So many of us out of our private experiences could name individuals of whom that is true that it is difficult not to suppose that they total to a considerable aggregate.
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