Unemployment Insurance Relief

Facts of

20 years which followed the war of 1914-18 witnessed employment and unemployment phe nomena of unusual geographical extent, intensity, duration, and political and social significance. The implication in the writings of Karl Marx that private capitalism would be wrecked upon the rock of unemployment came dangerously near to fulfillment in several nations. Extraordinary measures had to be taken to meet the needs of the unemployed, such as an unprecedented volume of public works, work relief and direct relief, and, in many countries, national subsidies of unemployment insurance. Unemployment and public policies connected with it have been an important factor for 20 years in the political affairs of Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Holland, the United States, Canada, and other countries.

Two principal types of statistics are published by the various nations, statistics of employment and statistics of unemployment. The former are based upon reports by employers of the numbers of persons on their payrolls at a designated time in each month. The method, which was developed in the United States, endeav ours to ascertain what is happening in the labour market by ob taining reports monthly from a carefully selected, representative and identical sample of the employers in each industry. When an employer discontinues his reports for any reason, the statistical bureau replaces him with another employer whose business is as similar as possible in terms of products, size, and location. From time to time the sample is checked against census information to make sure that it continues to be reasonably representative of the economic area it is supposed to cover.

The unemployment statistics are obtained in a variety of ways. Many countries record and report the number of applicants for work registered at the employment exchanges. Several publish monthly reports on the percentage of trade unionists unemployed. These figures are obtained either, as in Denmark, from the re ports of trade union unemployment insurance funds or, as in Aus tralia, by direct reports from union secretaries. The most reli able unemployment statistics are those compiled from the records of unemployment insurance schemes. The British and German statistics are the most adequate because of the extensive coverage of their industrial population. The U.S. statistics, now that the entire nation is covered by unemployment compensation laws, will be equally valuable for the years from 1939 forward. France publishes the number of "unemployed in receipt of relief," and Mexico and Japan merely official estimates of the numbers unem ployed. The French "relief" figure is consistently lower than their "applications for work" figure compiled at the employment ex changes and is obviously far below the true unemployment fig ure. The Mexican and Japanese "estimates" undoubtedly involve

a considerable margin of error.

The International Labour Office has compiled an unemployment index for the world level of unemployment (Table I). It is based upon data from 15 countries. Because of the limitations of the data used, the Office warns readers that the index numbers "are more useful as showing fluctuations from year to year than as indicating the absolute level at any one date." Table II is a compilation of index numbers on employment as sembled by the International Labour Office from the different na tions. The monthly issues of the International Labour Review show in detail the sources and types of the figures furnished by each nation. Examination of the columns for the years 1931 and 1932 reveals how far employment dropped in the various coun tries, measured in terms of total unemployment. The table does not show the number of workers put on part time. In the case of Denmark, since 1931 is the base, the depth of depression unem ployment is indicated rather by the contrast between 1931-32 and the indexes for 1935-38 than by low index numbers in 1931 32. The index numbers for France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Luxembourg show a striking persistence of low employment among reporting firms during the years after 1933 when most of the nations show a marked improvement in employment.

the coverage is practically complete, the figures show the approxi mate amount of unemployment. For the Netherlands, where un employment insurance is voluntary, and for France, where the fig ures are of relief applications, they fall far short of a complete picture of existent unemployment.

Table V, which gives the percentage of insured workers who were unemployed in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1929-39, is probably the most complete and accurate index of unemploy ment that exists for any large nation.

Table III gives statistics of unemployment in terms of the num ber of persons registered for work at the employment exchanges of the various countries. The more completely the industrial popula tion of a country is covered by unemployment insurance, the more accurate the employment exchange figures as a measurement of unemployment, since all such insurance laws require registration for work as a prerequisite to the receipt of benefit. The British, Polish, and German "exchange" figures are probably closer to the total numbers unemployed in those countries than those of the other countries.