Criterio del devengado

( i i ) Male Unemployment

One o f the g rea te st w orries concerning employment p a ttern s in post-w ar S cotlan d was th e h igh le v e l o f male unemployment. T his can be traced to some exten t to the d eclin e o f heavy in d u str ie s aifter th e war which a ffe c te d Scotland more d ir e c tly than any other reg io n ,

S co tlan d 's surplus o f male labour was not sim ply a fea tu re o f the tran s­ it io n from war to peace, although reconversion was lim ite d by the

1, See p. 295 on fa cto ry b u ild in g . See a ls o , Adam C o llie r , The C rofting

Problem, e s p e c ia lly p p .93-95 on th e problem o f adapting th e p rovi­ sio n s o f n a tio n a l le g is la t io n to employment and unemployment in the H ighlands.

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s c a r c it ie s o f fu e l and raw m a teria ls. Rather i t was a r e fle c tio n o f th e pre-war lack o f balance in the nature and d is tr ib u tio n o f S c o ttis h in d u str ie s. C onsiderable new sources of employment were needed to p re-

1 ^

ven t a return to th e pre-war le v e l o f unemployment. Long-term male

unemployment was a m atter of much concern notably in the West Coast o f Scotland and e s p e c ia lly because a high proportion o f th e men were

2

on ly f i t fo r lig h t employment. T his became more problem atic as th e

West Coast o f Scotlan d did not have many forms o f lig h t in d u str ia l employment a v a ila b le . Many o f the unemployed males were simply in tr a n s itio n from one job to another but long-term unemployment was a very r e a l problem. In Glasgow in 1948 20 per cen t o f a l l unemployed men and boys had been out of work fo r over a year, fo r Scotland as a whole th e fig u re was 17 per cen t.^ By 1950 th ere was 22 per cent male unemployment in Glasgow w hile the S c o ttis h fig u re remained at 17 per c e n t,^ The problem o f a d d itio n a l job s needed fo r m ales in the lo c a l p ock ets of unemployment and notably in the o u tly in g p a rts of Scotland was another c r it ic a l fa c e t o f t h is problem.

( i l l ) Female Employment P attern s

Any improvement in th e S c o ttis h employment outlook 1945-1951 was much more marked in male ra th er than fem ale lab ou r. Correspondingly

i t was more pronounced in th e in d u str ia l d is t r ic t s and the Development Areas, as th ese were tr a d itio n a lly cen tres o f predom inantly male

employment. Many heavy industry areas - in p a r tic u la r the mining

1. I . and E ., 1951, p. 8. 2. I b id ., 1948, p . 8. 3. Ib id .

areas - lacked su ita b le o u tle ts fo r fem ale employment,^

At the con clusion o f th e war many women e ith e r remained in th e ^ same jobs th ey had h eld during the war or relo ca ted to new peace­

tim e job s. There was a marked in crease in th e nunber of fem ales employed fo llo w in g the war as compared to th e pre-World War I I y ears. The number o f women employed in Scotland d eclin ed s lig h t ly but s te a d ily

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in the immediate post-w ar y ea rs as compared to the war y ea rs. An

important fa c to r in the red u ctio n o f fem ale unemployment was th e dec­ lin e in the number o f women en terin g employment. Many women who had sta rted job s during the war - o ften fo r the f i r s t tim e - sim ply ceased to r e g is te r fo llo w in g the war when they had exhausted th e unemployment b e n e fits to which they were e n title d , ^ thereby reducing the number of

fem ale in su red workers. The war undoubtedly r a ise d the proportion o f women in employment and during th e post-w ar years i t s e tt le d down to a le v e l somewhat higher than b efo re the w ar.^

Although the employment p a ttern improved much more fo r m ales than fem ales, th is was due to the f a c t th a t the employment situ a tio n was much more d if f ic u l t fo r m ales. T his was dem onstrated by th e fa c t th a t

fem ale labour was generally^soarca than male labour in Scotland dur­

in g the post-w ar y ea rs. In 1948 th ere were f iv e unemployed men aged 18 and over fo r ev er y . two vacan cies, but fo r women the proportion was one

1. S .E .C .S ., 1946, p .5. See C liv e Lee, e d ., B r itis h R egional g

Employment S t a t is t ic s 1841-1971. (Cambridge, Cambridge U n iv ersity

P ress, 1979) Î see # 4 5 - # 63 fo r I93I and 1951 on male and

fem ale employment in Scotland during th ese y ea rs, 2. I b id ., 1948, p .5.

3. I b id ., 1946, p .7 . 4 . Worswick, p .l6 .

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