CHAPTER  III

DOES  UNEMPLOYMENT  GROW?
,$*  /.  Do  Modern  Forces  Make  for  Irregular
Employment?
Is  this  waste  of  labour-power  arising  from  chronic  insufficiency ­
  or  from  irregularity  of  employment  tending  to
increase?  The  question  is  often  put  and  answered  in  the
affirmative  or  negative  with  equal  confidence.  As  we
possess  no  just  measure  of  present  “  unemployment,”  and
no  measure  at  all  of  past  “unemployment,”  no  direct
evidence  can  decide  the  point.  There  are,  however,  some
considerations  derived  from  knowledge  of  the  changes  in
lhe  character  of  different  industries  and  the  proportion
of  those  employed  in  these  several  industries,  which  will
lead  us  to  believe  that  the  general  condition  of  employment ­
  in  England  is  one  of  greater  irregularity,  and  that
the  waste  of  time  and  energy  is  larger  than  it  was  half  a
century  ago  or  during  the  18th  century.
§  2.  Expansion  of  Market  Areas.
Three  conditions  are  specially  calculated  to  impress
irregularity  of  employment  upon  a  business.  First  the
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