HC Deb 20 July 1976 vol 915 cc1495-7
1. Mr. Jessel

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current figure for registered vacancies.

13. Mr. Brotherton

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many vacancies there were for jobs on 1st July 1976.

The Minister of State, Department of Employment (Mr. Harold Walker)

At 2nd July, 127,128 vacancies notified to employment offices and 25,971 notified to careers offices remained unfilled in Great Britain. These figures are provisional. Because of possible duplication the separate series for employment offices and careers offices should not be added together, nor do they constitute a measure of total vacancies in the economy.

Mr. Jessel

What is the Secretary of State doing to see that as many as possible of these 125,000-plus unfilled vacancies are taken up as urgently as possible? In view of the tragically high level of unemployment today, will he follow the sensible example of Australia and Holland and stop unemployment benefit after six weeks if people do not take up the unfilled vacancies offered to them and for which they are suited?

Mr. Walker

I agree with the hon. Member about the tragic nature of the figures published today. As for the matching of vacancies with applicants for jobs, I think he should know that there has been a significant improvement in the placement services of the Manpower Services Commission, which is continuing. He should bear in mind that vacancies do not always provide the opportunities or prospects for advancement to match the skills, abilities and aptitudes of those who are seeking jobs.

Mr. Ron Thomas

Does my hon. Friend agree that the appalling unemployment figures published today are a clear indictment of our capitalist system? Does he also agree that we require the kind of Socialist policies with which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has often been associated, and which he has advocated in the past?

Mr. Walker

Certainly the unemployment figures are a reflection of the Western economic system, as can be testified by the fact that the malaise that we are enduring is common to all Western industrial countries. I hope that the House will derive some encouragement, however, from the fact that the trend of vacancies is continuing to rise and that the number of people on short time, and who are temporarily stopped, has dropped significantly.

Mr. Brotherton

Will the Minister reconsider his reply? Is it not shameful that the "won't-works" and the "can't-works" are paid the same level of unemployment benefit? Will the Minister therefore ensure that, in future, if a man is offered a job in accordance with his aptitudes and skills, he is free to turn it down, but we are free not to pay him unemployment benefit?

Mr. Walker

That is the statutory position that is exercised by officers. If people are offered suitable jobs it is a condition of continuation of benefit that they accept them. In 1972, the right hon. Member for Leeds, North-East (Sir K. Joseph), who was then Secretary of State for Social Services, instituted the sort of inquiry that some hon. Members are now calling for, looking into alleged abuses of benefit. It was found that, by and large, the allegations were unfounded and that the majority of those unemployed were seeking work.

Mr. Heffer

Will my hon. Friend repudiate entirely the disgusting and despicable philosophy that is being expressed by the Conservatives? Is he aware that that was the philosophy which guided their party during the 1930s? Will he make it clear that in no circumstances will a Labour Government tolerate that type of concept for one moment?

Mr. Walker

We certainly do not contemplate responding to the wild and rather foolish demands made by some Conservative Members.

Mr. Prior

Is the Minister aware that the Opposition have never underestimated the problems of unemployment? We have never failed to criticise the Government for complacency they have shown in what is now an extremely serious situation for the nation. When will the Government recognise the facts of life, which are that if they had allowed private industry to expand and had cut public expenditure earlier, as we said they should, the position would be far better today than it is?

Mr. Walker

The right hon. Gentleman is wholly unjustified in suggesting that the Government have been complacent. As he will know, the Government have introduced a wide range of contingency measures over the last 12 months or so and are urgently considering further measures, about which a statement will be made very shortly. A central theme of the Government's whole economic strategy is increasingly to shift resources into the manufacturing sector to expand it and thus provide job opportunities. It ill becomes the right hon. Gentleman to accuse this Government of causing high levels of unemployment when, in November 1972, under his Government, unemployment reached 1,574,000.