Annual unemployment rates 1923-38 for 8 divisions.

Table ID:

DIV23_38     (1247489)

Contents:

Annual unemployment rates 1923-38 for 8 divisions.

Approx. number of rows:

128

Table type:

Raw Data

Documentation Author:

Humphrey Southall

Geography:

Reporting units are identified by:
   Unspecified Division

Chronology:

The data cover the period 1923 to 1938.
Dates and times are identified by:
   Year

Sources:

1. These data were transcribed from p. 10 in W.R. Garside, British Unemployment 1919-1939: A study in public policy (Cambridge, 1990), but derive originally from official tabulations of the Local Unemployment Index.

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Notes:

1. Unemployment statistics for the early 1920s are scarce. From 1921 the Labour Gazette published the number unemployed in engineering, shipbuilding and building for the same geographical divisions, placed on the National Insurance system, plus hours worked in mining; it also continued to report a 'Trade Union Percentage' of unemployment, but this was disaggregated only by trade, not district. From 1922, it gave percentage rates for divisions as well as the number of unemployed within the National Insurance system. By 1924, it also reported the numbers on the live registers at a small number of employment exchanges, without any information on the total number insured. By 1926, it added the unemployment rate, by coalfield, among miners as well as hours worked. Some of these data may be added to the database, but it would seem that trade union reports remain the only sources which can provide unemployment rates for a reasonable number of individual towns up until the introduction of the Local Unemployment Index (LUI) in 1927.
2. Unfortunately unions such as the ASE expanded greatly during WWI, making their monthly returns very bulky. Until the LUI first appeared, therefore, the most geographically detailed official unemployment rates were those published in the Labour Gazette. These were limited to only eight very broad regions among which, for example, the 'NORTH EAST' division included both Tyneside and Lincolnshire. This transcription is included here for completeness.
3. The same divisions appear in tables un_1928 and un_1933.

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Indices:

Index	Type	Column(s) indexed
div23_38_idx	Unique	x_division, year

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Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
x_division	Text string (max.len.=16).	Administrative division.
year	Integer number.	Year to which rate refers.
rate	Floating point number.	Percentage unemployed.