THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL II.--Large Provincial Oldwes (Sorting Clerks and Telegraphists). Average days absence from Sickness per head during 1889 in Towns where both Males and Females are employed. Office. Halifax. Bradford,
Birkenhead . . .
Brighton .... Exeter ....... Plymouth .... Chester . . . Burton-on-Trent Cheltenham.. D, undee .... ! Shrewsbury.. C,'arlisle .... i ,%uthampton . Greenock . . [Swansea ........ Wolverhampton . ? Cardiff .... i Huddersfield ' i i ?i ' Hull ..... I Aberdeen ' ' ' Belfast . . Portsmo?ti? ......... Leeds ........... Bolton Newcastie-'o? ?y?e ...... Nottingl?a?n ' ' York ........... Male. t Female. 0'7 3'2 3'7 4'1 2'0 6'2 6'4 0'6 2'6 8'8 4'4 1'8 5'9 10'3 'Females com- pared with Males. 0 - 0'7 8'2 ? - 3'7 4'1 0'2 1'8 0'3 5'9 0'7 5'7 1.o + 0'4 3'1 + 0'5 3'3 5'5 3'8 0'6 5'7 + 3'9 6'0 + 0.1 9'0 1'3 3'2 9'8 + 6'6 6'2 11'7 + 5'5 6'4 11'7 + 5'3 1'4 '12'2 . + 10'8 4'2 ' '12'4 + 8'2 4'3 '12.6 + 8'3 6'3 i '13'0 + 6'7 4'7 I '14'8 + 10'1 7'6 '15'1 3'5 '15-3 7'0 5'9 8'9 '15'4 '16'8 '17'1 4'0 *22'5 5'5 *38'8 + 7'5 + 11'8 7'6 10'9 8'2 18'5 32'8
- High rate due to lengthened absence of one or two officers. With regard to
this table it must be borne in mind that the women do no night duty. On the whole, these imperfect statistics, which ?re the less trustworthy in that the number of women concerned is much smaller th?n that of the men, be?r out the popular impression that women's l?bour is subject to more frequent interruption from illness th?n men's. But ?he Post Office ?nd the Treasury axe certdn]y under the belief that, notwit.hst?nding this f?ct, they ?re buying their women l?bour ?t ? lower net r?te th?n men's. And this is especially the c?se with regaxd to the routine clericsl work of the indoor clerks where no night duty is required. The Prudential Life Assurance Company beg?n, in 1872, to substitute women clerks for the lower grades of men clerks. This experiment h?s proved so successful that 243 l?dies axe now em- ployed exclusively on clerical work of ? routine character (copying healthy as the men. What they appear to indicate is just the reverse, and the fact that some extra consideration is shown to the women in the way of arrangement of hours, overtime, etc., only strengthens this inference.
