New evidence on short time working in Britain, c.1926-38

"Short-time working has been, and continues to be, a key area of investigation for those interested in the operation of the British labour market during the inter-war years (Whiteside and Gillespie, 1991; Griffin, 1993; Huberman, 1995; Bowden and Higgins, 1998; Hart, 2001). With the exception of the Whiteside and Gillespie study, much of the recent literature has focused on the operation of short-time working at the level of the individual industry. This paper presents new evidence on the scale and characteristics of temporary stoppages for the British economy, c.1926-1938. Using data taken from the Ministry of Labour Gazette we are able to calculate the annual average incidence of temporary stoppages for 25 industrial classifications involving new and old manufacturing industries, commerce (banking, insurance, finance, transport and distribution) and utilities (gas, water and electricity). Despite the fact that there are problems in using those classed as 'temporarily stopped' to provide accurate measures of the stock of unemployed for the economy as a whole, the new data set we have compiled does permit accurate and meaningful comparisons to be made between industries on the use made of temporary stoppages. For example, variation in the incidence of temporary stoppages between manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries (services versus industry) and within manufacturing ('old' versus 'new' industries). In addition, the data set permits the formulation of a number of testable hypotheses concerning the incidence of temporary stoppages, for example: the operation of the benefit-wage ratio and volatility of output. As such, this paper is able to decompose the quantitative effects of a variety of economic variables on inter-industry variation in temporary stoppages. This is a major advance which allows us to examine more rigorously than hitherto, some of the determinants of temporary stoppages. In addition, the paper is able to draw useful parallels with studies on short-time which, by focusing on the post-1945 period, have benefited from more detailed statistical series. Finally, this paper both complements and extends work which has been done on an inter-industry basis but with respect to, for example, wage-employment elasticities. The paper concludes by placing these findings in their wider historical and economic context."