ENG-1962 — Page 67

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Employment

OCCUPATIONS

THE 1961 census gave more comprehensive employment figures than those previously produced by the Labour Department, which computes its figures from quarterly reports of the majority of industrial employers. These figures give a reasonable picture of industrial employment, but they do not include out-workers or those employed in smaller industrial undertakings, in building and engineering construction, agriculture and fisheries and cottage in- dustries. In the past, estimates only were made for employment in these occupations, leading to figures of uncertain accuracy.

The census indicated that 1,211,999 people were economically active in a total population of 3,133,131. Of these 1,191,099 claimed to be employed. Nearly 51 per cent were workers in construction, manufacturing, mining, quarrying and utilities, while 22 per cent provided various types of services. Commerce employed 11 per cent, while agriculture, forestry, fisheries and hunting employed just over seven per cent, as did communications. Manu- facturing, with 475,520 persons or nearly 40 per cent of the work- ing population, was the largest single employer.

Workers formed 38 per cent of the total population, (849,572 males and 341,527 females). In-workers (those who work at their employers' place of business and cannot take their work away to complete) numbered 788,474 permanently employed, and 37,334 casual or seasonally employed persons. Other categories included 123,861 self-employed persons, 52,798 unpaid family workers, 11,172 apprentices, trainees and learners, 10,794 out-workers and 9,256 workers employed on commission. There were 57,400 employers.

The number of persons directly employed in industries registered with or recorded by the Labour Department increased throughout 1962 and reached a total of 297,897, an increase of 26,168 over 1961. Although the rise was steady, there were fluctuations within