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.