§ 21. Mr. Lawsonasked the Minister of Labour the number of unemployed persons who have been out of work more than three months; and whether the Government have any plans for the reemployment of these workers?
§ Mr. E. BrownOut of a total of 1,650,236 unemployed persons, aged 16-64, in Great Britain who at 12th September, 1938, were applying for unemployment benefit or unemployment allowances, 610,759 had been continuously on the registers of Employment Exchanges for three months or more. Corresponding figures are not available for persons not applying for benefit or allowances. As regards the second part of the question, I have nothing to add to previous replies on this subject.
§ Mr. LawsonAs the right hon. Gentleman has said that less than one-third of the whole unemployed have been out of work for three months, is it not necessary that the Government should have some plan for dealing with the matter?
§ Mr. BrownIf the hon. Member will look at the past year he will find that in 1932, when there were 2,500,000 unemployed, 1,063,000 had been unemployed more than three months, while in 1933, out of 2,000,000 unemployed, 933,000 had been unemployed more than three months. Therefore, there has been an improvement, but in saying that I do not want the House to think that we are complacent or satisfied.