Book Notes
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1938.tb02095.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1938 |
| Date | 01 July 1938 |
Book
Notes
Year Book
of
Labour Statistics,
1937.
Pp.
237.
(International
Labour
Office, Geneva.)
6s.
THIS
is the second year of publication of an International Year Book of Labour
Statistics, the information
in
earlier years having been incorporated in the
Internattonal Labour
Office
Year
Book.
The volume
is
larger, and
statistial
information is throughout
on
a more comprehensive scale than in the previous
year. More space has been devoted to notes (which are, of course, indispensable),
while a convenient Appendix has been included
of
international statistics in the
field of general economics, supplied by
the
Financial and Economic Section of the
League of Nations across the road. (There has been a certain tendency of late for
the
two
great institutions of Geneva each to behave as
if
the other were not there.)
The most valuable addition to this year’s volume, however, consist5 of
a
series
of tables showing the gainfully occupied population in eighteen principal countries,
with detailed sub-divisions of
“
occupational groups and industrial status.” The
task
of
preparing comparative statistical tables of different countries in this field
has been long overdue. Much pre-war work was done
on
this important branch
of
international economic inquiry, but since the war the only important study
in
this
respect has been that undertaken by the German Statistical Office. The League
of
Nations attempted to systemise information
in
this
field
some years ago and,
unfortunate to relate, abandoned the attempt. The divisions of the working
population
of
each country into
“
Industrial groups
”
(agriculture, industry,
transport, public service, etc.) are cross-classified by
“
Industrial Status
”
(em-
ployer, salaried, wage workers and family workers). Those interested in inter-
national affairs could spend many hours over these tables without extracting all
their nectar.
The systematic tables camed
on
from previous years give statistics of employ-
ment in each country in different industry groups, unemployment
also
sub-divided
by industries and sex, hours of work, wages and earnings, with detailed inter-
national comparisons of wage rates
in
principal occupations
in
October,
1936,
statistics of aggregate wage and salary payments in each country (this is
a
new
table
also),
cost-of-living figures, workers’ family budgets, migration statistics, and
statistics
of
labour disputes.
Except for those who think that we have nothing to learn from other countries,
this
volume
is
quite indispensable.
c.
c.
Unemployment
Insurance
and Assistance in Britain.
Pp.
271.
Price
8s.
6d.
MR.
COHEN,
in a preface, describes his book as
‘I
an attempt to explain in ordinary
language the systems
of
Unemployment Insurance and Assistance in
a
form
which
I
hope will commend itself
to
those who need
a
popular treatise on this subject.”
In this he has succeeded admirably, for, apart from not too numerous quotations
from Regulations and Statutes, even a casual reader will find
it
interesting.
The author describes the development
of
our system in broad outline
from
1911
onwards. In chapters entitled
I‘
Years
of
Crisis
”
and
‘‘
Years of Recovery
”
By
Percy
Cohen,
C.B.E.
(George
G.
IIamp
&
Co.,
Ltd.)
371
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