OVERSEAS TRADE AFTER 1890 99 
and Melbourne were also available, and from these two series 
the construction of an effective wage index then became possible. 
The chief difficulty arose, however, in connexion with the adjust- 
ment of effective wages for unemployment, the real crux of the 
matter for our purpose. 
An estimate of unemployment for these years had, therefore, 
also to be made; and the method used was that of calculating 
the average of employment or, to use a shorter term, the norm. 
From the figures given by Coghlan it was calculated that, 
TasLe XVIII 
Percentage of Unemployment, New South Wales and Victoria 
N ler af employees in. factoriest 
Vitoria. ' N.S. Wales.| Total. 
(Dhousands.) 
51-300 
50-879 
47-916 
42-057 
46-502 
18-030 
19-840 
51-439 
52:518 
55-646 
80-779 
86-230 
1890 
1891 . 
1892 . 
1893 
[894 
1895 
1896 
1897 . 
1898 . 
i899 . 
1900 . . 
1901 . 
Thousands.) 
56,369 | 
54413 
15-415 
41-729 
13-319 
17-646 
50-397 
32-650 
54-778 
60-070 
84-207 
36-529 
* Pigure in brackets Commonwealth Bureau of Statistics estimate, Labour 
Report, No. 2. 
+ Norm raised to correspond to growth of population. 
exclusive of aborigines, 5 per cent. of the population of New 
South Wales and Victoria was engaged in manufacture of some 
kind. This would give for the two colonies mentioned a norm 
of 113-63 thousands for 1891, when the population totalled 
2,272,637. If a different line be pursued and calculations made 
for each state separately of the employment-in peak years, say 
1886 for New South Wales and 1888 for Victoria, a norm of 
56 for New South Wales and 58 for Victoria or a total of 114 is 
obtained. Since population was nearly stationary for the years 
between 1890 and 1897 these results are sufficiently close to 
1 Statistical Registers of New South Wales and Victoria; and Coghlan, Statistical 
Account of Australia and New Zealand.