Women (Hansard, 3 February 1972)

§ 10. Mr. Ashley
asked the Secretary of State for Employment what estimate he has made of the total number of women unemployed, whether registered or not.

§ 27. Mr. Ashton
asked the Secretary of State for Employment what estimates he has made of the numbers of women who are made unemployed and do not register at the labour exchange.

§ Mr. Dudley Smith
There were 127,566 women registered as unemployed on 10th January. It is not possible to estimate the number of women who do not register. Further information about the total number of persons seeking work will, however, come from the 1971 Census of Population. Preliminary results are not expected for a few months.

§ Mr. Ashley
I have a great respect for the Minister, but is he aware that that answer was vacuous? By the time the census figures are announced they will be out of date. There is nothing whatever to prevent the Minister estimating the number of women unemployed. What does he propose to do to improve the employment prospects of women as part of the Chancellor's campaign in the so called war on unemployment?

§ Mr. Smith
As the hon. Member probably knows, there is no accepted way of defining or measuring the number of people unregistered and unemployed. But certainly the employment services of my Department are available equally to men and women. There is no evidence to suggest that there is a lack of employment opportunities for women as compared with men. On the contrary, for every 100 men registered as unemployed in Great Britain last month there were 8.7 unfilled notified vacancies. The corresponding figure of vacancies for women was 45.6, so there are still plenty of opportunities available for women workers.

§ Mr. Ashton
Why is it not possible to have figures for unemployed women who do not register? Surely it would be a simple matter to take the number of women who were paying industrial injuries contributions 12 months ago and compare it with those contributing today? Would not that show a drop in the numbers, of women who have jobs?

§ Mr. Smith
The matter is not as simple as that. It sounds simple on the face of it, but many women want to work only part-time or on a temporary basis, and many often want to work only locally. If they become redundant and they have domestic responsibilities, they wait at home until other local employment appears. It is difficult to identify the total number of women who are unemployed but unregistered.