Introduction of winter work schemes is being considered if unemployment rises above 1,500.

Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan made the suggestion as he unveiled the island’s Covid economic recovery plan.

But talk of winter work schemes to tackle rising unemployment is nothing new.

Right up until the 1980s, when the island embraced financial services, the Manx economy followed a familiar pattern of full employment during the tourism season followed by a slump in the winter months.

Winter work schemes provided one answer to the spiralling number of jobless out of season.

A search of newspapers cuttings in the iMuseum show how such schemes were a regular feature of the labour market from the 1930s onwards.

In September 1960, Lieutenant Governor Sir Richard Garvey agreed to consider a plea from the Manx Labour Party for an earlier start to the government-assisted winter work schemes.

At the point there were 696 people looking for work but it was estimated that this figure could rise to 1,050 by the end of the October.

In the event, the schemes began in full as planned on October 17 with a block vote of £100,000 provided in the Budget.

The Examiner reported there would be work for 450 men.

JC Nivison MHK, chairman of the social service board, said prospects for the winter were ’better than they have been for many years - better probably than in any year since the war.’

Of the 450 jobs, 110 were at the airport.

More than 100 men were to be given jobs by the Forestry, Land and Mines Board for schemes to plant trees at Stoney Mountain, Ballaugh plantation and an area near Ballig Bridge.

Some £20,000 was allocated the Highway and Transport Board that year for the widening of Alexandra road, Castletown, and the continuing reconstruction of Marine Drive.

Both schemes were said to provide 1,202 man-weeks of work, reported the Mona’s Herald.

Some familiar island landmarks have their origins in winter work schemes.

Gansey’s sea wall and roadway, for example, provided employment for 12 men over 21 weeks when it got under way in 1939 and was the only unemployment work in Port St Mary that first winter of wartime.

But the format of the works schemes was not always universally welcomed.

The Isle of Man Times reported in 1953 that the trade unions strongly opposed the idea of staggered work schemes proposed by the government to give everyone a chance of winter work.

Under the plan, the boards were to take on more men than were needed and then employ them in turns.

But the unions said this would strike at agreements on working conditions already made.

A letter from Government Office requesting winter work scheme was met with a frosty response by Onchan Commissioners in December 1956.

Mr F Stone wanted to know how much the grant would be before they draw up any plans, reported the Examiner.

He said: ’We pay costly fees for architects to draw up our plans and Government Office cast them into the basket.’

In October 1947, the Ramsey Courier reported a shortage of cement, pipes and other materials was holding up work schemes all over the island.