The first surprising point is, however, that this increase was attained without any appreciable increase in the amount of labour required. In 1924, the total number of factory workers was 4,857,000, In 1930, the total was 4,876,000. In 1935 it was no more than 5018.00. It is perhaps worth while to point out that this is less than one-quarter of the occupied population—three men and women out of every four are builders, road-makers, miners, farm workers, transport workers, shop assistant, cinema attendants, waiters, domestic servants, typists, or unemployed, However, this figure shows that whereas between 1924 and 1935 physical output increased by 29 per cent, in the same period the number of workers in industry increased by only 33 per cent. The true fact is even more spectacular than this, for ihe number of operative workers has hardly increased at all. In this eleven-year period there was a 28 per cent. increase in the number of technical, administrative and clerical rkers—the result of technical progress, of the creation of large-scale units, and of more scientific means of production—while the number of operative workers remained about the ame, Thus, the output per operative, which had increased by seven per cent. between 1924 arid 1930, increased by a further 20 per cent. in the next five years, making an increase in output per head of 29 per cent. during the entire eleven-year period. In eleven years, therefore, productivity increased by two-sevenths. Five men can now do an industrial job which required seven men in the middle of the twenties.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.