ABSTRACT
A LARGE part of any country's economic activity is, of course, always devoted to things other than physical production - transport, commerce, the professions, personal service, Government service, central and local, and so on. According to the Census of 1921, out of 12,113,000 men gainfully occupied, 4,887,000 were engaged in these occupations, and out of 5,065,000 women, 3,016,000 were so engaged. Thus among men gainfully occupied some 60 per cent were concerned with physical production, among women some 40 per cent, among persons some 53 per cent. The proportions were very much the same in 1911. These percentages are thus not very high, perhaps a good deal lower than some people would have been inclined to guess. Consequently, in spite of t"h,eir stability as between 1911 and 1921, we must not expect movements in aggregate activity and movements in physical output to correspond very closely; - though, since our employment figures also in the main exclude activities other than those connected with physical production, this does not matter much for comparisons between production and recorded unemployment. Further, changes in technical efficiency will affect physical production from given numbers employed; so that even here we should not expect close correspondence. N evertheless, movements in physical production are evidently
of great interest, not only for their own sake, but also for their relation to other movements.
