ENG-1963 — Page 72

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Employment

OCCUPATIONS

THERE are no comprehensive official employment statistics and the only data regularly collected concern members of the civil service and employees of factories and industrial undertakings. The Labour Department which is responsible for matters affecting the health, welfare and safety of industrial-workers computes its employment figures from quarterly reports submitted voluntarily by the majority of industrial employers. While these figures give a reasonable picture of industrial employment, they do not include out-workers or those employed in very small industrial under- takings, in building and engineering construction, in agriculture and fisheries or in cottage industries.

The 1961 census gave more comprehensive employment figures than those previously produced by the Labour Department and 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 em- ployed. Nearly 51 per cent were workers in construction, manu- facturing, mining, quarrying and utilities, while 22 per cent provided various types of services. Commerce employed 11 per cent, and agriculture, forestry, fisheries and hunting just over seven per cent, as did communications. Manufacturing, with 475,520 persons or nearly 40 per cent of the working population, was the largest single employer. Workers formed 38 per cent of the total population, (849,572 males and 341,527 females) while 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 casually 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.