III.—Employment.

This Chart is divided into two sections. The upper section shows the cyclical fluctuations in employment as indicated by the mean percentage of unemployed members of certain Trade Unions in each of the years 1860-1905.

During this period six distinct cycles of employment are shown to have occurred; the first, counting from one period of maximum employment to another being from 1860-1865; the second, 1865-1872; the third, 1872-1882; the fourth, 1882-1889; the fifth, 1889-1899; and the sixth, from 1899 to the present time, when employment after reaching its lowest point in recent years in 1904, is now moving upward. The years 1862, 1868, 1879, 1886, 1893, and 1904, were years of "minimum" employment (or maximum unemployment). The figures given are based on all the available returns from Trade Unions. It should be noted that these figures simply represent the average percentage of members of Trade Unions returned as being out of work through want of employment. They do not take into account overtime or short time, or the loss of time through sickness, holidays, strikes and unpunctuality.

In the lower section of the Chart the seasonal fluctuation's in employment are shown.

The improvement in employment shown to take place in the summer months is largely due to the inclusion of the building and other outdoor trades in which employment is at its best in those months.