521
APPENDIX IX.
COMPARABILITY OF BRITISH AND GERMAN STATISTICS OF
UNEMPLOYMENT.
How far the official statistics of unemployment issued in this country and in Germany
respectively, can be regarded as comparable, that is to say, as similar indices of similar facts,
is a question to which much attention has been recently directed, as the German figures
shew a percentage of unemployed workpeople little more than one-third of that recorded
by the British figures.
In the years 1901-7 the British figures have ranged between 7'G and 3 3, while, in the
period since the first of the German records, that for June, 1903, was issued, the German
figures have ranged between 3 2 and 0'7, the latter figure being recorded for August, 1906.
At the end of 1907, the German percentage was 2*7, while the British was GY.
In considering these figures, it is necessary to have regard to certain differences which
exist between the conditions which find their expression in such percentages, in this
country and in Germany respectively, as well as to the question of the comparability of the
figures themselves. It is convenient to deal in order with three graups of considerations : —
(a) Considerations which reduce the Percentage of Unemployed Members of German Trade
Unions as compared with those in the United Kingdom. (b) Considerations which tend
to make the Percentage of Unemployed Members of German Trade Unions a less complete
Index of the State of Employment in Germany than is the corresponding Percentage in
the United Kingdom, (c) Considerations which tend to show that the Official Figuro
published in Germany is a less complete Record of the true Percentage of Unemployed
Members of German Trade Unions than the Official Figure published in the United
Kingdom is of Unemployed Members of British Trade Unions.
(a) Considerations which reduce the Percentage of Unemploijed Members of German Trade
Unions as compared with those in the United Kingdom. / •
One feature of German conditions to which the attention of the Board of Trade has
been called, in the course of the inquiries made with reference to the statistics of
unemployment, is the existence, in Germany, of a practice of resorting to some other
industry for employment when a scarcity of work affects the principal occupation.
Rural workers attracted to the towns (partly owing to the compulsory military service
having brought them within the range of the attractions of town life), when thrown
out of work in the towns, can, and it is asserted, do leave the towns for the country
and fall back on agricultural employment. The demand for labour in agriculture
being, as a rule, in excess of the available supply, this dovetailing of urban and rural \
employment is an important influence tending to reduce the percentage of industrial
workers who are out of employment at any time.
Somewhat similar in its general effects to the influence of secondary occupations, is the
fact that trade union standard rates of wages do not prevail in Germany to the same extent
as in Great Britain. In consequence, workpeople have greater liberty in accepting work
at wages lower than those at which they have been previously employed, especially in bad
times. A more speedy return to employment of some kind, and a consequent reduction in
the percentage of trade-union members unemployed, results from this.*
The existence of a widespread and efficient organisation of municipal labour registries,
in addition to the employers’ registries and those of the trade unions, is another influence
tending to the quick restoration of the unemployed to the ranks of the more or less fully
emploved workers. The attention of the Board of Trade has also been directed to the
similar influence exerted by the systematic way in which public works are carried out at
those seasons when they assist in relieving the labour market. It is probable that the
effect of this effort at adjusting inequalities in the supply of work affects not only general
unemployment in Germany, but the particular cases of the members of trade unions which
contribute to the official statistics of unemployment.
(b) CowMdgraZòms wMc/a &W ¿o ma&e ¿fie TerwWaye of UMßmjoZm/ßd Jfem&erg q/ German
Trade Gmoms a Zess compZeZe Znd&r q/ ZAe GZaZe q/ Æm^ZoymenZ fn Germany ZAan w
the corresponding Percentage in the United Kingdom.
Not only does the general organisation of industry in Germany present features which
tend to keep down the numbers out of employment, but, in dealing with the official percentages
of unemployed, it is necessary to bear in mind certain details which prevent these
figures from being treated as comparable with the United Kingdom percentages of
unemployed.
Some influence is exerted by the comparatively recent foundation of the majority of
the German trade unions. A consequence of this comparative youth of the organisations
is that their membership includes a smaller proportion of men of advanced years than does
that of most British unions. In so far as the liability to unemployment increases with age,
the relative absence of old men in the German unions would tend to reduce the extent
of unemployment among their members, as compared with that in. British unions
otherwise similar.
* Herr Calwer, Editor of “ Das Wirtschaftsjahrgoes so far as to say that “ In Germany, up to the present
time, it is a fact that, in the vast majority of cases, men are only allowed to claim beneft when they fnd it
impossible to obtain employment, even on rather unfavourable, or on altogether unfavourable conditions.' 1 '
29088 8 U
