twenty-five selected industries show a much larger increase for 1911 over 1910, the proportion being 4.1 per cent. Much the largest proportionate increase in total value of product shown by any one of the industries is that credited to "lamps (electric and other)", 33.7 per cent., and the next greatest is 15.0 per cent., which was the gain made during the year by "shipbuilding." The greatest falling off, 19.7 per cent., is shown by "steel and iron forgings." In the total value of "goods made or work done,” “refining oils" is far ahead of all other industries with a product valued at $77,585,033; "silk goods (broad and ribbon)" come next with a product of $52,023,853, which is 1.0 per cent. below the total for 1910. From the standpoint of value of products alone, oil refining is the most important industry of the State, but the number of wage earners employed, 7,500, is relatively small. Undoubtedly the production of "silk goods," in which New Jersey leads all other States, is our greatest industry, giving employment in its various branches, as it does, to nearly 30,000 operatives, men and women, and producing merchandise to the value of more than $52,000,000 annually. Besides the oil refining and silk industries, there are many others, as will be seen by an examination of the table, that show products ranging in value from above $20,000,000 to nearly $40,000,000. The average value of product per establishment for the group included in the "twenty-five selected industries" is $412,778; for other industries the average per establishment is $347,360; and for "all industries," including the entire 2,475 establishments reporting, the average product is valued at $380,105 per establishment. TABLE No. 4. This table shows for each of the eighty-nine general industries, and for all industries combined, the greatest, least and average number of persons employed, classified as, men 16 years old and over; women 16 years old and over; and young persons of either sex under the age of 16 years. As the minimum age at which children may be employed in factories and workshops of New Jersey is fourteen years, it is assumed that none of the young persons included in the third classification are below that limit. The excess of greatest over least number of persons employed is given for each industry and for all industries, both in absolute numbers and by percentages. The figures representing this excess and their equivalent percentages, will show clearly the amount of idleness or unemployment experienced by each industry during the year. Just what is meant by unemployment may be illustrated by assuming that some particular industry or establishment employs at one time during the year five hundred persons, and that this number has been reduced to four hundred because of slackness in trade; under such circumstances there would be one hundred employes, or 20 per cent. of the greatest number on the pay roll at any time during the year who suffered the consequences of irregular or intermittent employment. The totals of this table show the greatest number of persons employed at any one time during the year to have been 324,670, and the least number281,993. The difference between these totals is 42,677, or 13.1 per cent., of the greatest number, whose employment for one or another reason, principally fluctuation in demand for the products of the various industries in which they were engaged, was not continuous during the entire year. By far the larger proportion of this irregularity of employment is chargeable to the seasonal trades, the largest of which are the clay products and glass industries. The first of these practically suspends all operations during the winter months, and the second close down almost entirely during the summer months. There are other seasonal trades in which extra help is employed at certain periods of the year and discharged or "laid off" when the rush is over, and as stated above, this regular irregularity of employment accounts for the largest part, about 60 per cent., of the difference between the greatest and least numbers employed in all industries throughout the year. Apart from the customary periods of idleness in the seasonal industries, the fluctuations of employment in 1911 as compared with 1910, were very slight indeed, as shown by the figures below, in which the state of employment for both years is compared. As shown by the above comparison, the increase in the "greatest" and also in the "average number of persons employed" in 1911 as compared with 1910, is, respectively, only 1.0 per cent. In the least number of persons employed the increase is 1.7 per cent., which shows that in the matter of employment the conditions of 1911 were practically the same as those of 1910, the increases being represented by the small percentages shown above. To fully appreciate the extent of shrinkage in employment shown this year it should be noted that a comparison table similar to that above showed, for 1910, an increase of 8.2 per cent in the average number employed over that of 1909, and that the average annual ratio of increase considered over a period of sixty years is 4.4 per cent. Of the aggregate average number of persons employed in “all industries," 305,295, Table No. 3 shows that 222,997, or 73.0 per cent., of the total are men sixteen years old and over; 76,216, or 24.9 per cent., are women sixteen years old and over, and 6,082, or 2.0 per cent., are young persons of either sex who are below the age of 16 years. The percentages of each one of these subdivisions of wage earners, and also the proportion of unemployment or temporary idleness are given below for 1911, in comparison with 1910. As shown above, there has been a decrease of 1.0 per cent. in the proportion of male and an increase of 0.9 per cent. in the proportion of female employes. This is contrary to the experience of every year since the compilation of these statistics was begun; heretofore the experience had been that each succeeding year showed a small but steadily maintained increase in the proportion of male labor, and a practically corresponding reduction in the proportion of females. The percentages of young persons under 16 years of age remain the same, 2 per cent., for both years, and "unemployment" shows an increase of only one-tenth of one per cent., which is, practically speaking, nothing. The following table shows all the industries, seventy in num- The seventy industries appearing on the above table include 2,172 establishments, or all but 303 of the total number in all industries. In these seventy industries the total number of persons employed is 273,852, of whom 191,650, or 69.98 per cent., are men; 76,141, or 27.81 per cent. are women, and 6,061, or 2.21 per cent., are children less than 16 years old. It should be borne in mind that these proportions of the three classes of labor are applicable only to the seventy industries employing both female and child labor and that the percentages of these two classes of employes must necessarily be greater than appears on Table No. 3, where the calculation is based on "all industries," among them being, as shown above, 303 establishments, in which, practically speaking, neither women or children are employed. Among the seventy industries appearing on this table are a considerable number in which the proportions of women and children employed are very small, but in order to complete the list of occu |