ABSTRACT

During the last few years a more and more insistent demand has arisen for a reduction in the hours of work in industry. The main reason for this demand is the rapid growth of unemployment in most of the industrial countries of the world, coupled with the realisation that this unemployment is due, at least in part, to the great rise in the productivity of labour. The Archbishop pointed out that unemployment is more than a misfortune for those who are overtaken by it; it is a curse. It will be seen that the extent of unemployment varied very greatly even in 1927 to 1929, the extreme range being from 28.4 per cent. The increasing productivity of labour is one of the most striking phenomena of the present century. More detailed information concerning production is given in the report of the ILO.