§ 12. Mr. Ioan Evansasked the Secretary of State for Wales what is the number of people in full employment in Wales at the latest available date and in May 1979.
§ Mr. Nicholas EdwardsQuarterly estimates indicate there were 865,000 employees in employment in June 1979 and 725,000 in December 1982.
§ Mr. EvansAlthough the Secretary of State talks about bringing jobs to Wales, is not this a massive reduction in the number of jobs available? To deal with the problem facing Wales at present, is it not necessary to make a major change in the Government's economic, industrial and financial policies?
§ Mr. EdwardsThere has been a substantial reduction in the number employed. The steel industry has suffered especially during this period. The figures that I have given 10 show that there are 24,000 more employees in employment than were given in estimates presented to the House a year ago. Those were estimates. I am now presenting figures on the basis of the 1981 census. The headline in a recent Welsh newspaper to the effect that there had been a 24,000 increase in unemployment is the reverse of the truth.
§ Mr. RogersDoes not the Secretary of State accept that in his blind, dogmatic search for cuts in employment in the public sector he is creating a situation in which local authorities cannot spend the money available to them for repairs? Will he take off his blinkers and give local authorities the chance of employing people so that they can use the capital moneys which the right hon. Gentleman says they are not spending?
§ Mr. EdwardsThe increase in numbers in the last two quarters came largely from the county councils and not the districts and cannot have arisen as a result of any problems concerned with repair grants.