ENG-1955 — Page 49

OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR ORGANIZATION

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tion, of cottage industries and in the number of out-workers. Partial surveys made during the year give grounds for the belief that the total number of people engaged in industry is around 325,000, and that industry now constitutes the largest single source of employment.

The principal industries are textile and metal manu- facture, shipbuilding and repairing, employing between them about 80,000 men and women. In the textile group, four new cotton-spinning mills brought the total number of mills to 18, operating in all 306,212 spindles, and employing 13,500 workers.

Unemployment. The absence of general employment statistics precludes anything but estimates on the broadest basis concerning unemployment and under-employment. Although the growth of industry and the sustained high level of building activity kept large numbers employed, and skilled workers found their services in demand, there was a large surplus of unskilled labour, most of it in the under- employed category.

There were fluctuations in employment in various industries, but reduced employment in any particular field was offset by increased employment in another. Changes of this kind do not necessarily imply any lengthy period of unemployment for individual workers, since the majority of semi-skilled and unskilled workers are adaptable and are capable of turning their hands, for example, from weaving or garment-making to assembly work in a metalware factory or gumming in a rubber shoe factory.

Migration for employment elsewhere is unfortunately on a very small scale, owing to immigration restrictions imposed by countries unwilling to accept Chinese immigrants as permanent settlers. The main sources of external employ- ment are found in North Borneo, Brunei and Indonesia, where the services of skilled and semi-skilled workers on contract are in considerable demand for construction work, in the oilfields and in factories. During the year 1,717 manual workers left the Colony under officially approved contracts for work overseas. In compliance with International Labour Organization Conventions, contracts were for a period of two years in the first instance, or three years in exceptional cases, where the worker was accompanied by his