CHAPTER  II

THE  MEASURE  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT
§  /.  Defective  General  Statistics.
Exact  statistical  measurement  of  “  the  unemployed  ”,  or
even  a  close  estimate  of  the  total  number  of  those  “  out
°f  work  ”  at  any  given  time  is  impossible  at  present.  The
miserably  defective  character  of  our  statistical  machinery
forms  an  adequate  basis  of  ignorance  upon  which  to  form
discreet  official  answers  to  awkward  questions.  But  though
we  cannot  directly  measure  the  magnitude  of  the  evil,
we  are  able  to  show  that  it  is  very  great.
The  only  official  figure  relating  to  the  general  quantity
°f  “  unemployment  ”  is  that  percentage  calculated  by  the
Board  of  Trade  from  the  returns  furnished  to  it  by  trade
union  officials.  The  official  figure  represents  the  average
percentage  of  members  of  certain  unions  who  are  reported  at
a  given  date  to  be  in  receipt  of  unemployed  benefit  from  the
union  funds.  In  the  December  number  1894  of  the  Labour
Gazette  the  figure  obtained  by  averaging  the  results  of
sixty-two  trade  union  returns  was  7  per  cent.  But  this
fgure  cannot  be  taken  as  a  general  measure  of  “unemployment.” ­
  It  is  not  designed  as  such  by  the  Labour