§ Mr. Prescottasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a break-down of British workers working 208W in Skelmersdale New Town, particularly the young unemployed; and what further plans he has to reduce the level of unemployment in the Skelmersdale New Town.
§ Mr. GoldingOver 2,500 persons in the Skelmersdale area have so far benefited from the Government's special employment and training measures, and details are shown in the following table.
The youth opportunities programme, the work experience programme, the youth employment subsidy and its predecessor, the recruitment subsidy for school leavers, have all been aimed specifically at helping unemployed young people. In addition, many of the places under the job creation programme have been filled by young people who would otherwise have been unemployed.
In the coming months, unemployed people in Skelmersdale will benefit from the development of the youth opportunities programme, the special temporary employment programme and the extension of the small firms employment subsidy. In addition, because of its special development area status, Skelmersdale will continue to benefit from the highest levels of regional assistance available under the Industry Act to firms moving into or expanding employment in the area.
In the longer term, the success of the Government's industrial strategy and our attack on inflation will bring about the economic conditions in which the level of unemployment can be brought down and kept down in Skelmersdale and the country as a whole.
in the Community countries by occupations.
§ Mr. GoldingI regret that the information requested is not available. The 209W information could only come from surveys carried out in all the countries of the Community. The labour force survey would be appropriate but for the fact that it does not collect occupational information on a Community-wide basis. This is because there is not, as yet, an agreed occupational classification for the Community.
§ Mr. Prescottasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his most recent estimate of British workers employed in the countries of the European Economic Community compared with 1972.
§ Mr. GoldingI regret that the information requested is not available. The information is theoretically available from the EEC by way of the labour force survey which asks a question on nationality. We of course only have results for the United Kingdom and the EEC have not yet published any information on nationality from this survey.
There is a Community regulation (311/76) on providing information on foreign workers. We have until 1981 to fulfil the terms of the regulation in full. In the meantime, we can only provide, from
WORKING DAYS LOST THROUGH INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES PER 1,000 EMPLOYEES IN CIVILIAN EMPLOYMENT 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 All EEC countries 412 427 549 446 442 415 393 … United Kingdom† 475 600 1,100 325 650 275 150 450* West Germany 4 205 3 26 49 3 26 1* France 110 272 229 233 198 232 298 … Italy‡ 1,445 1,012 1,333 1,570 1,268 1,668 1,192 … Belgium‡ 482 409 116 281 183 195 301 212* Netherlands 69 25 35 152 2 0 4 … Luxembourg 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ireland 1,405 376 286 282 739 406 1,076 … Denmark 56 11 11 2,007 96 53 111 … United States of America 941 670 368 367 618 408 477 438* Japan‡ 118 177 149 128 266 220 88 … * Provisional estimate. † Including those workers indirectly affected, but only in establishments at which the disputes occurred. ‡ Excluding those workers indirectly affected. … Not available. Main Sources:
Eurostat: Social Indicators for the European Community 1960–75.
Department of Employment Gazette.
International Labour Office: Year Book of Labour Statistics.
OECD: Labour Force Statistics.