§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many firms in Wales were affected by short-time working in the first quarter of 1975; and what is the estimated total of working days lost.
§ Mr. John FraserAs regards the first part of the Question I regret that information is not available in the form requested. However, in mid-April 88 firms in Wales were known by my Department to have some or all of their employees on short-time working. Comparable information about the number of working days lost as a result of short-time working is not available.
126Wlast five years of the following groups of workers: polytechnic teachers, general practitioners, dentists, and university lecturers, including professors, respectively.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerFollowing is the information:
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many redundancies in Wales were announced in 1974 and during the first quarter of 1975.
§ Mr. John FraserI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that redundancies involving some 6,990 people were notified as due to occur in Wales in 1974. The equivalent figure for the first quarter of 1975 was 3,920. In addition, a further 5,990 redundancies have been notified as due to occur in the remainder of 1975 or later.
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will bring the figures for Wales in the analysis of unemployment by age and duration, published in the August 1974 Department of Employment Gazette, up to date for February 1975.
§ Mr. John FraserI regret that the information is not available. The unemployment figures on an age and duration basis are normally obtained in January and July each year, but it has not been possible to prepare the figures for January 1975 owing to industrial action at local offices of the Employment Service Agency.
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many unfilled reported vacancies there were in Wales in March each year since 1965.
127W
§ Mr. John FraserThe following table shows the information for March each year. The statistics relate only to vacancies notified to employment offices and careers offices and are not a measure of total vacancies.
NOTIFIED UNFILLED VACANCIES IN WALES Employment offices Careers Offices March 1965 7,228 2,431 March 1966 10,627 2,683 March 1967 7,407 1,634 March 1968 5,347 2,251 March 1969 5,450 2,297 March 1970 6,006 2,319 March 1971 5,319 1,691 March 1972 4,804 1,407 March 1973 7,100 2,005 March 1974 7,731 2,253 March 1975* 6,506 1,378 * Because of possible duplication the figures for employment offices and careers offices at March 1975 should not be added together.
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what is the latest estimate of average hourly earnings for male and female manual and non-manual workers in Wales; and if he will compare these figures with those of 12 months earlier;
(2) what is the latest estimate of average weekly earnings for male and female manual and non-manual workers in Wales; and if he will compare these figures with those 12 months earlier.
§ Mr. BoothThe latest figures for manual workers are those from the Department's annual October inquiry into earnings and hours of manual workers.
Indices of average gross weekly earnings in Wales (April 1970=100) Men (21 and over) Women (18 and over) Manual Non-manual Manual Non-manual Index of Retail Prices (United Kingdom) April: 1970 … … … 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 1971 … … … 110.0 112.0 113.3 110.2 109.4 1972 … … … 124.2 124.0 128.9 122.2 116.3 1973 … … … 143.9 134.7 146.9 137.5 127.0 1974 … … … 162.5 155.4 176.6 155.1 146.3 1975 … … … Not Available Note: The estimates are subject to sampling errors. Minor changes in the measurement of earnings in the survey from 1971 have been ignored.
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the average weekly number of hours worked by full-time adults in (a) Wales and (b) Great Britain, in each year since
128WIn the industries covered, the average earnings of full-time manual adults in Wales were:
Men aged 21 and over Women aged 21 and over Average weekly earnings: October 1974 £47.55 £26.99 October 1973 £40.52 Not available Average hourly earnings: October 1974 107.1p 71.6p October 1973 90.7p Not available The latest estimates of average earnings of non-manual workers are those for April 1974 which were published last November in the Department's Gazette page 1005 and 1006.
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table in the Official Report showing the indices of (a) average gross weekly earnings of both manual and non-manual full-time adult workers in Wales and (b) retail prices for January of each year since 1970.
§ Mr. BoothThe following earnings indices are based on New Earnings Survey estimates of the average gross weekly earnings of full-time adults employed in Wales and whose pay for the relevant survey pay period in April was not affected by absence. As earnings estimates for January are not available, the retail price indices are also shown relating to April; they are based on the official General Index of Retail Prices. 1970 and in each quarter since the first quarter of 1974.
§ Mr. John FraserIn industries covered by the Department's annual October inquiry into earnings and hours of manual 129W workers, the average weekly hours worked by full-time manual men aged 21 and over in the particular inquiry weeks were:
Wales United Kingdom October— 1970 45.0 45.7 1971 44.4 44.7 1972 44.8 45.0 1973 44.7 45.6 1974 44.4 45.1 Corresponding estimates for other weeks are not available and so weekly averages over a quarter or a year cannot be calculated.
§ Mr. Nicholas Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people are currently unemployed in the construction industry in Wales.
§ Mr. John FraserAt 10th March 1975 there were 12,202 unemployed people in Wales who last worked in construction.