GENERAL  MEASURE  OF  THE  PROBLEM  2Ç

§  74.  General  Measure  of  the  Problem.
The  conditions  of  this  estimate  of  “  unemployment  "
among  wage-earners  forbid  us  from  venturing  even  upon
an  approximate  figure  for  the  total  of  unemployment.  I
am  on  the  whole  disposed  to  think  that  if  it  were  possible ­
  to  take  an  accurate  census  upon  the  subject,  we
should  find  that  the  average  for  our  manufactures  as  a
whole  was  considerably  higher  than  the  figures  of  the
Board  of  Trade  Return  (applying  the  term  “  unemployed  "
as  usually  interpreted  by  trade  unions),  but  that  the  bulk
of  other  wage-earning  occupations  would  tend  to  lower
the  average  of  “  absolute  ”  unemployment.  Interpreted
more  liberally  and  more  logically  as  “  waste  of  social
labour-time,”  I  think  that  a  figure  like  7  per  cent,  for  a
period  of  depression  such  as  1894  must  be  considered  far
below  the  true  measure  of  this  waste.  In  other  words,  great
as  is  the  evil  of  complete  “  unemployment,”  the  evil  of
irregular  and  insufficient  employment  is  far  greater.
Taking  a  wider  survey  of  this  “unemployed”  problem
from  the  social  standpoint,  we  cannot  fail  to  see  that  it
by  no  means  exclusively  applies  to  the  wage-earners.
That  all  the  professions  and  the  higher  arts  are  “overstocked” ­
  has  long  been  a  commonplace.  Turn  where
you  will—to  the  law,  to  medicine,  engineering,  architecture,
teaching,  to  literature  and  journalism—you  find  large
numbers  of  men  who  are  only  “  nominal  ”  members  oí
their  calling,  still  larger  numbers  who  are  always  underemployed. ­
  Neither  here  nor  in  the  case  of  manual
workers  is  it  a  question  of  competency  or  qualifications:
set  what  standard  of  efficiency  you  will,  the  number  of
well-qualified  applicants  for  any  fixed  employment,  how-