48

THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

Dr.  Macnamara  :  "  Unemployment  in  the  building  industry
at  the  present  moment  is  of  very  small  proportions,  apart  from
those  occupations  which  are  either  particularly  liable  to  seasonal
fluctuations  in  demand  or  have  been  specially  affected  by  the
shortage  of  craftsmen  in  the  key  trades  of  the  industry.  There
appears  to  be  no  need  for  special  legislation  to  be  adopted  for  the
building  industry.”
Mr.  Watbrson  :  "  Am  I  to  understand  that  these  men,  who
have  been  put  into  the  industry  and  trained  somewhat  at  the
expense  of  the  taxpayers,  will  probably,  in  the  course  of  two
years’  time,  find  themselves  on  the  streets  without  any  employment
at  all  ?  ”
Dr.  Macnamara  :  “  My  Hon.  Friend  is  not  to  understand
that  at  all,  and  he  will  understand  this  rather  remarkable  fact
that,  of  all  the  crafts  I  know  of,  there  are  only  two,  even  in  the
present  grave  state  of  industrial  depression,  where  the  number  of
vacancies  offered  is  smaller  than  the  number  of  men  offered.
These  two  are  the  bricklayers  and  the  plasterers."
Now,  on  the  17th  February,  the  same  Minister  had
given  the  following  statement  as  to  unemployment
in  the  Building  Trade  on  that  date  :—
Dr.  Macnamara  :  "  The  number  of  men  in  the  building  trades
of  the  United  Kingdom  on  the  live  register  of  Employment
Exchanges  at  3rd  February,  the  latest  for  which  figures  are  available, ­
  is  as  follows  :—

"  (I  give  also  the  vacancies  notified).

Numbers

Vacancies

Unemployed.

Offered.

Carpenters

3.524

817

Bricklayers

238

5.576

Masons

74°

266

Slaters

154

8O

Plasterers

228

774

Painters

25,514

55

Plumbers

1,808

147

Labourers

...  •  ...  32,016

26  "