ABSTRACT
The gathering of unemployment statistics was considered an essential first step toward determining the extent of need and defining the programs best suited to resolve the attendant problems. To varying extents, competing interest groups recognized that there was a strong political component in the collection, assembly and dissemination of unemployment statistics. Many unemployment surveys were undertaken during periods of economic distress and their outcome suffered from the need to locate and question each jobless worker individually. The results of urban unemployment surveys tended to be dominated by seasonal occupations in general and the building trades in particular. In trade unions, as in the public sector, most unemployment statistics were gathered as part of programs designed to institute relief measures. All of the unions offering unemployment protection tended to impose minimum membership periods as a qualification for eligibility. A great deal of resentment focused on public unemployment subsidies to union members through the Ghent system.
