§ 2. Mr. Edeasked the Minister of Labour how many shipbuilding and ship-repairing workers, distinguishing between skilled and unskilled, were registered as unemployed at South Shields on the latest date for which statistics are available?
§ Mr. E. BrownThe available figures relate to wholly unemployed men aged 18 years and over. At 12th February, 1940, there were 107 wholly unemployed men registered at the South Shields Employment Exchange as applicants for work in shipbuilding and ship-repairing occupations. It is not possible to give separate figures for skilled shipyard workers, but the total of 107 includes 62 men registered in shipyard labouring occupations.
§ Mr. EdeIs the right hon. Gentleman doing anything to assist the First Lord of the Admiralty to absorb these men?
§ Mr. BrownWe are doing everything we can, but there are certain difficulties, especially with regard to those who were skilled at hand-rivetting and may be elderly men.
§ 3. Mr. Edeasked the Minister of Labour how many men over 18 years of age are now unemployed in South Shields; what were the corresponding figures six and 12 months before, respectively; and how many of the men now unemployed have been unemployed for a consecutive period of more than six months?
§ Mr. BrownAt 12th February, 1940, there were 6,300 unemployed men, aged 18 and over, on the registers of the South Shields Employment Exchange, as compared with 6,430 at 14th August, 1939, and 8,772 at 13th February, 1939. The 6,300 men on the registers at 12th 1335 February, included 6,090 applicants for insurance benefit or unemployment allowances, of whom 1,436 had been continuously on the registers for six months or more as compared with over 2,600 in the previous February and August. Corresponding figures are not available in respect of persons not applying for benefit or allowances.
§ Mr. EdeWill the right hon. Gentleman take some steps to enable these men to take the part they are anxious to take in winning the war?
§ Mr. BrownThe hon. Member will see that there has been a very rapid improvement, and I have no doubt that in the months ahead there will be a still more rapid improvement, but the position in that area is one of the most difficult in the whole of the last 10 years.