Employment Figures Show Britain Still Suffering

Monday 3rd February 1936

National employment statistics as 20th January showed some underlying recovery but Britain was still suffering badly. The total number of people working was up 3% at 10.35m but this was mainly because the previous year had been hard hit by very poor weather. A rise of nearly 50,000 in workers in the construction and contracting sector which is severely exposed to weather factors accounted for much of the overall improvement. By contrast employment in the heavy exporting sectors of the economy which were still suffering from the after effects of the Depression  and massive structural problems slipped. Workers in coal mining sector fell by 42,000, in ship-building by14,000 and in engineering by 24,000. The unemployment rate had improved on 18.8% in January 1935 but was still terrible at 17%.