This article describes an attempt to establish by regression analysis the form of the relationships which determine wage-rates and average earnings in the United Kingdom.

Unemployment in the United Kingdom has now probably begun to rise. This note is based on an analysis of the figures during the last 10-15 years; its purpose is to show—mainly in chart form— some of the characteristics of unemployment in this country.

This note analyses the price changes of some 470 manufactured products in five recent years. They were taken as a sample from the price quotations on which the Board of Trade bases its wholesale price index for manufactured products. Since the conclusions for the engineering industry are rather different from those of other industries, the two groups— engineering and non-engineering—are discussed separately. Food, drink and tobacco prices are excluded throughout.

A memorandum recently submitted by the Purchasing Officers Association to the National Incomes Commission reports that there have recently been many increases (averaging 4-5 per cent) in the prices of engineering products, and suggests that many of these were not justified by changes in costs. Similar reports and conclusions have appeared in the press.

The term national product is used in this note, for convenience, as shorthand for gross domestic product at constant factor cost. Where the word ‘output’ is used, it refers to the estimate of the national product from output data.