ABSTRACT
There are various ways of determining whether an industry is expanding, remaining stationary, or contracting. In the present review the test applied is the number of insured workpeople in employment. It should be noted, however, that an industry may be expanding its production while continuing to employ the same number or even a smaller number of workpeople, owing to the introduction of labour-saving methods and machinery. There is considerable evidence that during the depression the productivity per head of workpeople has increased and that, especially in coal-mining and in certain branches of engineering, labour-saving methods have been applied. The statistics include persons on systematic short-time, but recorded as unemployed at the dates on which the statistics were compiled. Employment in British coal-mining was at an exceptionally high level in 1923, at the time of the Ruhr occupation.
