28. Mrs. Butlerasked the Minister of Labour the number of men between 60 and 65 registered as unemployed in England and Wales at the latest convenient date; and what percentage of the men in that age group this number represents.
§ Mr. HareOn 11th December, 1961, the number wholly unemployed was 34,724, or about 4 per cent. of the estimated number of employees in this age group.
Mrs. ButlerI am not quite sure whether the Minister said "wholly employed" or "wholly unemployed", but he will be aware that there is considerable difficulty among men of this age group in obtaining employment, and I wonder if he would give special consideration to this problem, particularly in relation to Government Departments, which advertise vacancies in advertisements like these I have here from the Post Office, for example, and which limit the ages of the men offered employment to between 18 and 59, making it impossible for older men to apply for the jobs.
§ Mr. HareI would first tell the hon. Lady that I said "unemployed". On the other matter, my local officers are always doing what they can to help by making special approaches to employers to consider the merits of people, rather than their age, when they try to fill vacancies. I will take note of what the hon. Lady said.